Too many condiments are never enough

And so to Mexico we go.... Tonight's dinner was a simple chicken, chorizo and red rice chimichanga. Fresh, fresh, fresh!! They were very tasty, very juicy and very colourful. Mexican meals like this are so easy and really only use pantry items.

Chimichanga's are traditionally a deep-fried number. However in the spirit of helping someone's cholesterol and general healthy eating, these were oven baked. If you've got the March 2012 Masterchef magazine, you'll find this on page 67. For those who don't, here's my quick version of what to do. This will make 8 or so chimichangas - depending on how full you fill them and the size of tortilla (I used the small oens)! This dish can be made and served up on the table in 30 - 45 mins. If you are short of time you could certainly short cut by using a store bought salsa and guacamole. Fresh is much better though.

Quick spicy tomato salsa: Finely chop 3 large tomatoes and 1 red chilli. Add a crushed clove of garlic. Allow to drain through a coarse sieve (you want the tomato juice to add to the rice). To serve squeeze over juice of 1/2 lime, finely chopped coriander and a pinch of salt.

Red rice: Finely chop a red onion, 2 red tomatoes, 1 red chilli. Mix together and add to a hot fry pan (on medium with a dash of olive oil in it). Add 1 clove crushed garlic, 2 tbs tomato paste. Cook stirring occasionally, for about 4 mins. Stir in 1 cup long/medium grain rice, 160 mL chicken stock and the reserved tomato juice from the salsa (see above). Bring to boil. Cover, reduce to low, cook for about 10 mins to liquid is absorbed and rice is just cooked. Add a little more chicken stock if needed.

Chorizo and chicken mix: Remove meat from a bbq chicken and shred. Finely dice 160g chorizo and add to frying pan. Cook over medium for 3 mins or until browned. Add chicken to pan, with 2 tsp oregano leaves and 200mL chicken stock. Cook until liquid is almost evaporated.

Guacamole: Mash the flesh of a ripe avocado, squeeze over the juice of the other half of the lime. Finely chop some red onion and add to avocado. Add a splash or two of Tobasco sauce, to taste.

To assemble: Spoon red rice into middle of tortilla, top with chicken mix. Roll up and place in baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas (it should be enough to fill about 8 small tortillas). Sprinkle cheese over chimichangas (I found a Mexican cheese mix in Coles). Bake in moderate oven for about 10 mins, until cheese has melted.

Serve with guacamole, sour cream, salsa, cheese and any extra rice and chicken mix that wasn't used. And eat with your hands!
5 out of 5 wooden spoons.

Round 1: Camembert v Farmhouse Cheddar

Round 1 has been run, and I think we can all agree that all those who got to sample the cheeses were winners.

My Camembert, despite the extra spots of green mould, was very tasty. It was unwrapped 1 day shy of 6 weeks since the process began with heating the milk. It had the right creamy texture and I was relatively happy. The colour and ooziness (is that a word???) were pretty close to what I expected. I'll sure be making another batch of camembert when next I have a spare day.

The Farmhouse Cheddar was unwrapped from it's red waxy home and held it's form beautifully. There were some anxious moments in waxing this big sucker, in that some of the equipment suggested and/or provided with the Mad Millie Kit weren't actually big enough to take the whole cheese. Nonetheless Steve persisted and managed to coat his entire cheese and not too much of himself. The unveiling of the Farmhouse Cheddar showed a pale yellow, slightly crumbly cheese. It certainly tasted good, especially on the good ol' Jatz cracker. It was an instant hit with a certain little 1 year old birthday boy, who managed to shove a few quick pieces in his mouth before too many people noticed.

All in all, making your own cheese is quite a gratifying process. And also quite an achievement. I urge anyone with a spare day, to seek out a Mad Millie Kit and give it a go. Next for me, as well as more camembert, is finding the Kit with the haloumi and quark ingredients in it.

Let the cheese off begin

A few years back Andy and I went to a cheesemaking class at Belmondo's in Noosa. There we made Camembert, Mozarella and Ricotta cheeses. It was an amazing day and so great to come home with two camembert to keep draining then let develop for the next month. And to have fresh mozarella to consume in the following few days. At the time I really wanted to do it again and didn't know where or how to do it myself. It took a lot of specialised equipment, which I wasn't prepared to invest in and didn't know where to get.

Then last year, when shopping for Christmas presents, my sister showed me the "Mad Millie" range of Cheesemaking Kits . These are available online and in many Home Brew shops. They contain the specialised equipment, including rennet and cultures, you need to create delicious cheeses. That day I bought the Beginner's Italian Kit and came home and made marscapone and ricotta insalata.

I was a little impatient with the marscapone and it didn't quite thicken as it should have. The taste was certainly there though. The ricotta insalata is a firm ricotta which you rub salt into and then use in salads and the like. It becomes a little like the style of feta - it holds together better than regular ricotta. The picture above is the ricotta insalata after draining and having salt rubbed on it. Ready to go in the fridge for a few days to firm up before eating. It was delicious, and I have made it several times since. Ricotta is one of the easiest cheeses to make - basically you curdle milk (or the left over whey from other cheesemaking) at the right temperature and ta-da ricotta!

Not satisfied with the easy cheeses, I then bought the Camembert Ingredient Kit. Again, similar to the first kit, this gave me the starter culture and mould I needed, plus camembert moulds and wraps.

Camembert is a much longer process than the fresh Italian cheeses described above. After warming the milk, adding starter cultures, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, adding mould spores, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, forming and cutting the curd, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, stirring, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, then draining and putting in the mould, it takes the better part of half a day.

I'm sure you can see the importance of the constant temperature. To do this I created my own cheese incubator, I wasn't about to spend another $100 with Mad Millie to get there's (although you could). I used a small esky with a non-reactive plastic container inside as my cheese vat. It worked a treat and only cost me $20 all up. Although it is time consuming and ties you to the kitchen to keep checking the temperature, especially when using a homemade incubator set up, it is very enjoyable watching the process happen.

Once you get the camembert curds into the draining moulds (which by the way are full when you first tip it in, the picture above is after 5 hours of draining), its a matter of turning them every hour for up to 5 hours, then they need to go in a humid, warmish fridge. I did this in summer, so the humidity was not a problem and I turned my fridge up a little bit, put them at the top (the warmest part) of the fridge and always made sure there was a little water in the bottom of the container (for the first week).

In the fridge I stored them in a red decor container that has a draining rack in the bottom and has a little pop-top in the lid. Every day for the first week, I would take them out of the fridge and turn them over. After a week or so the white mould starts forming. Once it covers one side, you turn it over and wait another couple of days. Finally it comes to wrapping time. The Mad Millie Kit gives you the camembert wrapping paper. Then they go back in the fridge to age for 3 - 4 weeks. You are looking at a 6 - 7 week committment, for your camembert!

My camembert have about a week to go. How do you know when they're ready? You have to unwrap one, bring it to room temperature and then press it with your finger, like you do when you squeeze one in the supermarket (come on admit it, I know you do that!). They say you can also cut it across the middle at this point and it will "stitch" itself back together once you rewrap it and leave for a few days. I'm not sure whether I want to try that. I pulled my camembert out of the fridge the other day and they seemed nearly there. So the wait is nearly over.

My brother-in-law, Steve, also made some Farmhouse Cheddar, from the Mad Millie Hard Cheese Kit over the same weekend as I started my camembert. He had to be more ingenious than me and actually created his own cheese press.

The time is getting closer for the "cheese-off" to begin. Who will be the winner, stay tuned to find out what we think. Really though, we'll all win, because (hopefully) we'll be eating tasty, home-made cheese, made from locally sourced milk and with a big sense of accomplishment! Now, who's bringing the crackers?

Anyone for some Orange

This past Wednesday night I took inspiration from a request from Rose to cook "that pork with the chilli oranges dish". Our main course was Spanish Pork with Orange and Poppyseed salad, and dessert was Caramelised Oranges with Chocolate Ice-cream.

It always pays to read the recipe ahead of time just in case you need to do something important like marinade for more than a few hours. Lets just say a little quick thinking let me get the marinade happening throughout the day. For the Spanish Pork, you need to marinate for 24 hours. Mine marinated for 9 hours and still tasted great. For the marinade throw 1tsp cumin, 1tbs of smoked paprika, zest and juice on 1 orange, 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1/3 cup of maple syrup into a large ziplock bag with 2 pork fillets, and refrigerate. For the orange and poppyseed salad, zest one orange and peel and slice the flesh place into a bowl with 1 de-seeded lebanese cucumber 1/2 cup of coriander and 2 finely sliced chillies. In a separate bowl put 1/3 cup white wine vinegar (i used white balsamic, just as good) 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 tbs caster sugar and 2 tbs of poppyseeds. Whisk ingredients till combined.

Cook the pork on chargrill or BBQ 5-6 minutes each side until cooked or blackened. To dish up place salad on plate and top with sliced pork and drizzle with dressing. This dish was yet another successful main course.

Dessert on the other hand - not quite as successful. I have trouble with some of my desserts, especially ones that involve caramel. First off, take the zest off 3 oranges and blanch 3 times in boiling water. peel and remove the pith from said three oranges and slice, removing any seeds. Place in the bowl with zest. Boil up caster sugar and water till golden and pour over the oranges and let cool. This is where I fail to understand any caramel recipe as mine always turns to toffee.

To serve place into dish and top with a delicious scoop of chocolate Ice-cream. Tonight I cheated and used bought choc ice cream. Colin James Gelato, very nice indeed and to make it better he uses local produce from Maleny. I'm going to give my dessert a thumbs up but gee i wish i could do caramel.

Tonight's scores: Spanish Pork with orange and poppyseed salad 5/5 Tongs

Dessert: Caramelised oranges and choc ice-cream 2.5/5 Tongs

Anything you can do...

After viewing an episode of the current season of My Kitchen Rules (MKR), and watching the contestants completely overwhelm a pork cutlet by topping it with sage and apple and blue cheese and then wrapping it in prosciutto, before serving it up undercooked, I thought I could do better!

The pear, walnut and rocket salad was dressed simply with Balsamic vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You might see some polenta hiding behind the pork cutlet. I have a love-hate relationship with polenta. It is so easy to cook, but I haven't yet been able to serve it up 'soft'. Mine always ends up firm. Anyone with tips on how to achieve this please please please comment below and let me know! Because of seeing the MKR contestants serve up underdone pork, I left mine probably a minute too long in the oven, so they weren't as moist as they could be. A little Balsamic over the top of the cutlet helped that out, as did the sweet and juicy pear. Although Andy was more keen for a 'jus'.
Overall, a summery combination of flavours and a nice light dinner. 4/5 wooden spoons.

And now for dessert: Chocolate Chilli Pots with Biscotti

These chocolate pots are one of the easiest desserts you can make. Start with 300mL Pure cream in a small saucepan and add a large dried chilli or a teaspoon or so of chilli flakes. Bring the cream slowly up to just below the boil. Remove from heat, remove dried chilli (leave the flakes if you used them). Add in 200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces. Stir to combine well. Allow to cool slightly. Next, whisk in 3 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons caster sugar and 20g butter. At this point I tasted the mixture and decided it needed more chilli kick, so I added some more chilli flakes - do this to your own level of chilli heat. Remember that when you eat them though you will be eating more than one finger-full at a time so don't throw the whole jar in. Pour into small ramekins (about 100 - 120mL per serve). Cover and chill for an hour, then sprinkle with chilli flakes. Chill for further 4 hours and serve cold with biscotti on the side.
You can make these ahead of time, ie the day before, which gives the chilli more time to infuse and do it's thing. I surprised a couple of friends, by "paying it forward" and giving them their own special serving to take home from work one day - lots of smiles!!! One of my favourite desserts - 5/5 wooden spoons

Chicken Pot Pie and Baklava Cigars

Our apologies for the lack of a post for last week, family commitments intervened with our Wednesday night dinners. On tonight's menu I chose to cook leek and chicken pot pie for mains and Baklava Cigars for dessert. From the outset I have to say both of these dishes worked really well and tasted great.

The Chicken pot pie was a basic chook pot pie recipe but with a little twist that I had not experienced before. Lemon. With normal core ingredients of chicken thighs, bacon, leek, chicken stock and sour cream. Add some lemon juice and a little rind and some puff pastry for the lid. I served tonight's pot pie in individual ramekins which was just the right amount for a serving.

Dessert was from Valli Little and her Faking It Recipe book. Baklava Cigars. This is a very easy dessert to make. Grab a couple of filo sheets and butter them up sprinkle some roasted unsalted nuts over the top of the sheet and roll it up into a tight cigar shape. Bake these on 200 deg for 6-8 minutes until they are golden brown. Once baked allow to cool while sitting in some yummo syrup. To make the syrup put 200g of honey with 200g of caster sugar, 300ml of water and the juice and rind of 2 oranges into a saucepan. Allow to boil for 7 minutes or until syrupy. Serve with some ice-cream.

Both of these dishes were very easy to make and an ideal Wednesday night dinner when you are stuffed from work. It may sound like a busy dinner to make but with a little effort very easy.

Bon Appetite (gee i hope that is how you spell it)

My score for tonight's effort is 5/5 Ramekins for the Chicken pot pie

and for the Baklava Cigars 5/5 Filo Sheets (LOL)