A Collective Sigh

This week my challenge was to cook with Quinoa. It wasn't so much a challenge, as a request. I had wanted to cook Quinoa for quite some time, seeing as it seems to be popping up everywhere these days. Quinoa is touted as a 'superfood' and is a grain-like food. It can easily substitute in recipes for cous cous or rice. I found the texture to be softer than cous cous, probably because it swells up, when cooked, a little more like rice. For many people one of the advantages of quinoa is that it is gluten free, and thus far easier to digest. You will definitely pay more for quinoa (around $6 for a box of 3oog at my local Coles), than rice or cous cous, but I think it is worth it for a change every now and then, for a texture part way in between those two.

So what did I cook? First course was a Carrot and Ginger Soup. And then being my first test (and taste) of quinoa, I simply boiled it up and served it as a side with some beautiful Lamb steaks, a lemon and fennel salad, and home-made harissa.

Carrot and Ginger Soup (serves 6)
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 medium potato, peeled, chopped
5 1/2 cups chopped carrots
2 tsp minced fresh ginger (I used heaps more than that)
1 1/2L chicken stock
150mL whipping cream (optional) nutmeg chives salt and pepper

1. As with all soups, melt the butter, then add the onion and celery and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened.
2. Add potato, carrots, ginger and chicken stock. Stir, bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 mins, until all veges are cooked.
3. Blend/puree/process the soup till it's smooth.
4. Grate fresh nutmeg over the top. Stir. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add the cream to the soup and stir to combine, or just add a dollop as you serve, topped with chives.

This soup certainly did the trick. I had actually made it a few days earlier, and in a triple batch. We have a tradition at work to share a soup/curry/risotto etc on a Tuesday and I was first cab of the rank. I used a huge nob of ginger from my garden, as I didn't think that only using 2 teaspoons would be anywhere near enough.

Ginger from my garden

Ginger is one of the easiest things to grow yourself. Next time you buy some from the supermarket or fruit shop, snap off a bit and put it in a snaplock bag on your bench until it starts to produce a shoot. Then plonk it in a pot or straight in the ground, and give it a good drink of water. It will do it's think and keep growing and growing. Wait till you see the tall green shoot come up - the taller it is the bigger the ginger underneath I've found. So when you need some ginger, pull it up, snap off what you need, and rebury it. Keep dividing it up and your ginger will just keep re-generating and you'll never have to buy it again.

Thyme Lamb with fennel and parsley quinoa (serves 2)
100g quinoa
2 lamb backstraps (150g - 200g each) - I used lamb sirloin steaks
1 - 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 - 2 tbsp thyme leaves (could use lemon thyme if you can find it)
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, thinly sliced
1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
olive oil
1 garlic clove
1 lemon - finely grate rind, then juice it
lemon wedges and harissa (to serve)

Lamb sirloin steaks

1. Cook quinoa in pan of boiling water for 12 minutes or until tender. Drain, cover and keep warm.
2. Rub lamb with mustard (use more if you need it), then roll in thyme, salt & pepper. Heat large lightly oiled pan over med-high. Cook lamb for 3 mins each side (med-rare) or to your like. Remove and rest, covered for 5 minutes.
3. Toss fennel with parsley, lemon rind, lemon juice, garlic. Add in quinoa or serve separately.
4. Slice lamb thickly and serve on quinoa and salad, with lemon wedges and harissa (see recipe below)

Neil Perry's Harissa
4 hot red chillies, coarsely chopped with seeds
2 red capsicum, roasted, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
Sea salt and olive oil

1. In a mortar and pestle pound up the chilli, garlic, cumin, coriander and salt. Taste the chilli to check how hot it is! Add a bit of olive oil if you need to, to make a smooth paste.
2. Add in the thinly sliced capsicum and pound till it has broken up and is well combined with the chilli mixture.
3. Serve immediately, or spoon into sterilised jars and cover with some olive oil. Refrigerate.

Thyme lamb with fennel and parsley quinoa

This harissa is one of my stand-by favourites. It is quick and easy, and oh so tasty with lamb, fish, chicken, silverside, any meat really. It is also good as a dip for veges or with some cheese. Many many uses, I think you all should add it to your repertoire.

The whole dish was amazing. The quinoa was surprisingly light and fluffy. I thought it would be a little coarser like cous cous. The harissa had a beautiful hit of chilli and balanced out the lemon and fennel in the salad. The lamb was perfect - so tender, so juicy. If I do say so myself, this was brilliant. I give myself 5 out of 5 wooden spoons!


Lucky me I had the leftovers for lunch, the next day in the form of a quinoa harissa salad. I mixed the remaining quinoa with the remaining harissa, then added a whack of chopped flat leaf parsley. I had some left over silverside, which I chopped up and threw in as well. It was so good. You've just got to love a dinner, that keeps on giving.

Three Little pigs went to the Market

So it was my turn to make a holiday 3 course meal this week. I had made the decision to do a slow roasted pork belly after reading this months edition of Delicious magazine. This was going to be my "main event" and I needed to have a starter and dessert (pondering, pondering, pondering) then i saw the new "Donna Hay" magazine which had caramel desserts in it so, not being the best caramel chef i thought why not, give it another go. So dessert was planned in the form of a rhubarb Tarte tatin. After further reading of the "Donna Hay" my starter was chosen in the form of Black bean pork and Wombok dumplings.

Thank goodness for holidays. I had all day to prepare and boy did it help LOL.

To start with made the Rhubarb Tarte Tatin. We have worked out that when I do my caramels I have the stove on too high therefore the caramel turn to toffee. (Yay we have finally worked that one out). The Tarte Tatin is very simple to make - Gently dissolve 3/4 cup caster sugar in 1/4 cup of water. Once sugar is dissolved bring temp up to med and bring to boil till light and golden. Add 50g of butter and 2 cinnamon sticks stir till well combined. Pour caramel into into greased tin and arrange rhubarb pieces into caramel. Top with puffy pastry and fold in edges around the rhubarb, cut into top 3 small piercings. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Turn out to serve.

The Pork dumplings were just as easy. Thinly slice a Wombok chinese cabbage and fry up with 2 crushed cloves of garlic till wilted and softened. Allow to cool. Place 400g pork mince, 1 egg white, 2 tbs of black bean paste and chopped chives with cabbage and mix until well combined. Thanks to Rose for the dumpling crimper machine thingy, it made making the dumplings so much easier. Place a gow gee wrapper on crimper thingy and put a teaspoon of pork mixture on and crimp together. To cook the dumplings I put water into bottom of fry pan and steamed the dumpling for 5-7 minutes and then transferred them into another fry pan to crispen one side. To serve the dumplings I put some Chinese Black vinegar and chilli oil onto plate and placed dumplings on top.

The Pork Belly was again simple yet time consuming (only in the baking). Mix 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbs thyme leaves, 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes, pinch of ground cloves in a mortar in pestle. Add 1 tbs of lemon juice and 2 tbs of olive oil, mix into a paste. Rub this paste onto the rind of a scored pork belly. Let this stand for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 220 deg. Arrange some onion slices in a roasting pan and sit the pork on top. Roast at 220 deg for 30 minutes then reduce temp to 170deg and roast for 3 hours. Rest pork belly for 20 minutes. I removed the rind and put it under the grill for a few minutes to crispen up the crackling. I served the slow pork with an autumn salad (baby spinach, radichio, pancetta, red onion, swiss brown mushrooms, roasted hazelnuts, dressing honey, red wine vinegar and dijon mustard, olive oil) and pea mash.

This dinner was very simple to make and very nice to eat. We both enjoyed a glass of sav blanc which went down well with each course. The 3 pigs refers to the pork mince, slow roasted pork and the pancetta (thanks Rose). Look out for next week when the structure of our Wednesday night dinner changes. We are going back to our old ways where we choose an ingredient that must be used for the meal. I have chosen Quinoa for Rose. I wonder what she will decide to make - tune in next week to find out.

I'm going to score this 3 course meal 4.5 wooden spoons - just because.

Where's the cream?

I’m on holidays at the moment, so I thought a 3 course meal was in order. As I was flipping through the current (April 2012) of the MasterChef magazine I came across these three dishes courtesy of Matt Moran. All in all these three courses worked well together. They were all light and flavoursome in their own special way. It was a good combination of flavours to welcome in the new cooler season of autumn. This is a long post – three courses to get through, you may want to get a coffee or a wine (depending on your time of day) before you start! Enjoy….

First course – Fennel, lemon and orzo soup with aioli toasts (Serves 6)
The soup couldn’t have been easier to make. Sweat off a finely sliced leek with two cloves of chopped garlic. Add finely sliced fennel from two baby bulbs. Cook over medium until fennel is beginning to soften. Meanwhile cook orzo (risoni) for 5 mins in boiling water, it will finish cooking when you add it to the soup. Add the risoni and 1L vegetable stock to the soup and allow to simmer about 10 mins, until fennel is softened. Finally add the juice of a lemon and it’s lemon rind. Season, with salt and pepper, as you go. At first I only added half the lemon juice, and then tasted the soup – it definitely needed the rest. Serve with reserved fennel tops, any left over lemon zest and aioli toast.

For the aioli toast – diagonally slice a fresh baguette and toast under the grill or on a grill pan. For the aioli either buy the best one you can find, or use 1/3 cup egg mayonnaise, add to it 1 crushed clove of garlic, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Stir it up to combine and taste. Don’t add too much lemon juice or it will turn into a sauce and be far too sour. You want enough lemon juice to ‘loosen’ the mayonnaise and to add that little tang to the aioli. Spread the aioli on the toasted bread, and serve with the soup.

This soup was light in colour, texture and flavour. There was the right amount of lemon, to match up with the crunchy aioli toast. A lovely way to start the meal – we had to be careful not to eat too much. There’s more than enough soup in this recipe to feed 6 using these quantities, or add more stock and risoni to feed more hungry mouths.

Second course – Roast duck with lentils, pumpkin and orange (Serves 2)
I have to say straight up that I’m not a massive fan of lentils, but I didn’t let it deter me. This dish also includes Brussels sprouts, which I then found out Andy had never eaten. I tried to describe the flavour, but it’s kind of hard to. In his favour, the sprouts are deconstructed for this dish, so it wasn’t like he was facing a whole bowl of boiled ones!

I started by rinsing then cooking 100g green lentils in boiling water till al dente (15 – 20 mins), then draining them and setting aside. Whilst they were cooking I diced 200g butternut pumpkin, and mixed it with the zest of an orange and a dash of olive oil. This then went on a lined tray into a 200C oven for 20 mins to roast. After scoring the skin of 2 duck breasts, I placed them skin-side down in a cold fry pan, and cooked them over medium heat for about 8 mins, until the skin was golden and crisp, and most of the fat was rendered. The duck breasts then went on a pre-heated oven tray into the oven (once the pumpkin had come out) for about 5 – 6 mins (cooked to medium). They then rested, covered till I was ready to slice and serve.

Meanwhile, leave only about 60mL (1/4 cup) of duck fat in the fry pan and add 1 thinly sliced red onion and 1 crushed garlic clove. Cook over low heat for 10 mins, until lightly caramelised. Trim bases of 125g Brussels sprouts and place in colander in sink. Pour over boiling water to lightly wilt, then refresh in cold water, and drain well. They will then be bright green and looking like mini lettuce cups! Add the juice of the orange you zested earlier and 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar to the onions, simmer and cook for 2 mins until nearly evaporated. Add 60 mL red wine and 60mL chicken consommé (or stock, don’t tell Matt Moran!) and ½ - 1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard to the onions. Simmer and cook for 8 mins or until syrupy and reduced. Add lentils, pumpkin and Brussels sprouts leaves, simmer for 1 minute to warm through. Slice duck and serve on top of the lentil mixture.

As I said above, whilst not being a lentil fan, this was indeed quite tasty. The deconstructed Brussels sprouts were an interesting flavour, and not at all like Brussels sprouts really. That being said there were too many lentils and not enough pumpkin for my liking. So, next time I’d halve the lentils and double the pumpkin and onion.

Third course – Apple and Polenta Tarts with Apple Caramel
These were easy, quick and delicious. Start with the caramel – 40g butter, 2 tablespoons cloudy apple juice and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, in a small pan. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stir till sugar is dissolved. Peel and core 1 granny smith apple, and thinly slice it. Add the pieces to the caramel once it is simmering, toss to coat and leave for 2 mins, till apple starts to soften. Remove apple and set aside. Put the apple skins in the caramel and turn it off, till it’s time to serve.

Meanwhile, grease the base and sides of 4 x 8cm (3cm-deep) tart pans with removable bases. Line the base too. Beat 50g softened butter and 55g (¼ cup) caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 egg, and beat until combined. Add 55g (1/3 cup) polenta and beat until combined. Sift 75g (½ cup) plain flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ¾ teaspoon salt in a bowl, and then add to polenta mixture alternatively with 60mL (¼ cup) cloudy apple juice. Divide amongst pans (they will be half full). Place apple slices, overlapping, in a single line on top of each tart, and press slightly into batter. Bake 20 mins at 180C, until golden. Cool on a wire rack, then remove from pans.

And this is where the title might start to make sense…. Serve with a dollop of cream (or scoop of ice-cream) and drizzle with apple caramel (remove the skin from it before drizzling!). As I was serving this up I naturally went to the fridge to get the cream I had bought, and could not find it! I looked and looked, and finally remembered I’d been cleaning out the fridge earlier in the day and remembered throwing out what I thought was old cream, alas it turned out it was not. Anyway, I didn’t miss the cream on my plate as the apple caramel sauce was more than enough for me. I enjoyed this dessert – it was light, and had a slightly crunch to it because of the polenta. Next time (as well as cream/ice-cream), I was thinking it could maybe do with a hint of cinnamon or cloves or mixed spice. Something to ponder...