Canapes

For morning tea at work I want to do a series of canapes. They have to be easy to prepare because I have to complete them at work.

Herring and sour cream.
Cut a pickled Herring into bite size pieces
Place on toast
Cover with sour cream
Top with pepper and dill

Pastrami and Creamed Horse radish
Cover toast with Pastrami
Top with a mixture of sour cream and horse radish cream

Olive Paste and Goats Cheese
Cover toast with olive paste
Top with a spread of goats cheese

Goats Cheese and Japanese 7 Spice (Shichimi Togarashi)
Cover toast with a smear of goats cheese
Generous sprinkle of the pepper mix


Shichimi Togarashi Is a mixture of red pepper, roasted orange peel, yellow sesame seed, black sesame seed, Japanese pepper, sea weed, ginger

Chicken and Prawn Stir fry Malaysian style

Dice a chicken breast into bite size pieces
Peel and devein 5 large tiger prawns
Marinate the above for 10 minutes in 2tbs light soy, 2tbs Dark soy and 1tsp sugar

Cook 1 bacon rasher cut into strips and two sliced chinese sausage
Then add 2 crushed garlic cloves and 1 diced red chilli
Add chicken and prawns
Combine with two whisked eggs
Add 1tbs shaohsing wine

When ready throw in a handful of bean sprouts, spring onions sliced and some chopped chives

Serve on white rice with cashews to garnish

Thai Food by David Thompson

This is one amazing book. It begins with a over 130 pages introducing the reader to Thai history, culture and customs. Then it goes on to look at the various regions of the country and what distinguishes them.  To this point we have not had a single recipe. The writer is preparing the reader for a journey into a food culture which is every bit as demanding and unique as anything offered in the best culinary traditions of Europe.

The problem is most of us in the West are ignorant of all but red and green curries, a Thai salad, pad Thai or Tom Yung Goong. In fact the range and depth of Thai food is quite bewildering. The joy of this book is Thompson is able to give a cultural background to the food and bring to life the flavours the recipes are striving to achieve.

This is not just a book about Thai food, it contains a wide range of recipes and importantly suggests traditional menu combinations. If like me you found Thai food at once fascinating but also delightful then I would really recommend you get a copy of this wonderful book.

Delicious

This is my favourite food magazine. It has a great mix of recipes that focus on the seasonal, the functional (what to cook when in a rush) and the challenging ( learning new skills and extending your knowledge). I have been buying the magazine since 2005. In case you are wondering, yes I have kept every issue.

I was pleased to discover a new blog last night. Called a Delicious year, Krista the writer of this blog has decided that each month she needs to go through her back issues and she has them all and cook at least one item from each back issue. The link to her blog is on the right of this page and its well worth a look.

The magazine is available here in Australia in newsagents each month, if your not sure why not check it out for yourself. To subscribe the link is below:

http://www.taste.com.au/delicious/

Taste is also an excellent site for recipes and has some really good forums.

The only thing I would like food magazines to do is create a dvd with all of the back issues scanned onto it. A few computer magazines offer this and it makes it much easier to store back issues. Still you can't have everything.

Gnocchi

I felt like such an idiot. I have always bought Gnocchi from the supermarket. I always found it to be tasteless little lumps.

Well I made it last night and boy what a revelation.

If you have time to mash potato and extra 2 minutes will give you lovely Gnocchi.

Mash your potato as per normal, I flavoured mine with an egg yolk and parmesan.

Add an equal amount of flour to the mixture, it should form a sticky dough.

On a floured bench roll the dough into a long sausage, cut the gnocchi into 2 cm lengths.

Place in boiling salted water and when they float to the surface they are done.

Of course you can flavour the Gnocchi in many ways as well as a huge range of sauces.

As for making them at home its the only way to go.

Chicken and Cashew Stir Fry

Dice a red chilli
Dice to baby Bok Choy, set leaves aside
Thinly slice 2 spring onions
Dice your chicken into even bite size pieces
Take a teaspoon of Schezuan pepper
And one tbsp of Chinese Chilli paste

Heat your wok and add a dash of bran oil
Put in the pepper until it starts to pop then add the chilli paste
As the paste comes to heat through addf in the chicken and a dash of Shaoxing wine

Once the chicken is nearly cooked add in the vege except for the leaves
Now add a generous handful of roasted cashews
A dash more Shaoxing and put the leaves on top until they just wilt

Serve on a bed of rice.

To add heat use another chilli or a bit more chilli paste, for less heat seed the chilli before adding it.

Stuffed Chicken

Take one half chicken breast slice down the centre without cutting in half.

Take a tbsp of goats cheese and a generous sprinkling of tarragon and fill the centre of the chicken

Wrap prosciutto around the chicken and tie off

Oven bake at 180c for 45 mins

Serve with Road Kill potatoes and fresh vegetables in this case baby beans and whole roasted tomato

My favourite Kitchen gadget - The Ricer

This is one of those things you discover quite by accident. It is a real delight you place the boiled potato in the container place the plunger in and squeeze the handle and out comes lovely fine potato ideal for mash. THEN while watching a cooking show the chef Ben O'Donoghue put onto the boil some brushed potatoes, but he didn't peel them. He showed that when pressed through the ricer the skins remain behind, and only potato comes through. Now I never have to peel a potato again. How good is that?                              

Wayne's Cottage Pie

This is my take on this classic dish, just the right thing when life is getting on top of you.

Dice 1 onion, finely slice 2 garlic cloves, slice one red chilli and finely dice i red capsicum. Saute in olive oil until onion is translucent then add 500gms of lean mince cook until brown.

Once meat is browned add 1 400gm tin of diced tomatoes
1 small bottle of beer, stout is best if you have it
4 tbsp worcestershire sauce
Simmer until it reduces by about 50%

Then add 300 gms of chicken stock
Simmer until it forms a thick and rich sauce.

Place in a pie dish and top with mashed potato sprinkle the potato with grated cheese and brown in an oven at 180c until golden.

Mash:

For the mash I boil brushed potatoes, and use a ricer to make the mash means they don't need to be peeled the ricer does it for you. I then add butter, 1 egg yolk and grated parmesan. For a healthier choice you simply add no fat greek style yogurt.

Bengali Prawn Curry

Modified this from Gordon Ramsay's new book Gordan's Great Escape.

500gms Peeled and deveined prawns
Marinate in 1tsp salt and 1 tsp ground tumeric

Peel and chop roughly 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 2 green chillies and about 2cms of ginger. Blend into a smooth paste by adding a little water and using a blender.

Heat some bran oil in a fry pan and toast 2tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 bay leaves.

When the seeds start to crackle  add in the curry paste and stir often for about 15 minutes.

Add in 400gms of coconut cream and bring to the simmer then add the prawns and cook until the prawns are cooked through.

Serve on basmarti rice with Indian chutneys.

Retro Food- Stuffed Peppers

Begin by hollowing out the capsicum and boiling them for about 3 minutes in salted water

Sauté onion garlic and chilli then add mince and brown

season well and mix with pre cooked rice

Stuff the pepper cover with grated parmesan and oven bake at 180c for about 20 mins.

It could be the 70s in your kitchen tonight!!