Saturday, March 30, 2013

Prawn Stuffed Eggplant

I saw this originally as a paleo recipe which I'm completely into, but I live with a hungry man who needs a little bit more depth  to his meal so I free-styled the original recipe to get some rice and other density involved (and played with the flavours… as I always do)

Serves 2

Ingredients
·         1 eggplant;
·         350g peeled raw prawns, chopped
·         1 red capsicum, diced
·         1 tbsp. fresh ginger
·         2 cloves garlic
·         3 shallots chopped (including some of the green)
·         ¼ cup chopped parsley
·         2 tbsp. curry paste of your choice;
·         1 tbsp. fish sauce
·         1 tbsp. palm sugar
·         2 tbsp. olive oil;
·         Butter
·         ¼ cup risotto rice
·         ¼ cup breadcrumbs
·         ¼ cup parmesan

Preparation
1.       Preheat your oven to 200C.
2.       Take the eggplant and cut it into 2 pieces lengthwise. Make a series of parallel cuts, taking care not to cut through the skin. Brush the eggplant (cut sides) with 1/2tbsp. of olive oil on each side. 3. Place the eggplants cut side down on a roasting pan and brush the skin with ½ tbsp. olive oil and bake for 15 minutes. Turn over after the initial 15 minutes and cook again 15 to 20 minutes or until the flesh is tender. When you take the eggplant out, switch oven to grill mode. Scoop out the pulp leaving the skin intact and chop the eggplant pulp. Mash it ready to later stir back through into the risotto mix
3.       Scoop out eggplant and mush, put to the side to add to the risotto mix later
4.       In the meantime ….
5.       In a saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter over medium heat
6.       Add the ginger, the garlic, and capsicum, and cook for two minutes.
7.       Add the shallots and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
8.       Add the curry paste and cook until fragrant (1-2 mins)
9.       Add fish sauce
10.   1 palm sugar
11.   Add rice and stir for 2 minutes
12.   Add parsley
13.   The add boiled water ½ a cup at a time until risotto is 90% cooked
14.   Stir through prawns and eggplant
15.   Pour the mixture into the eggplant shells (you will probably have a bit of left over mix)
16.   Coat with breadcrumbs and parmesan
17.   Grill for 10 minutes

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Review - La Grande Bouffe

We were a party of eleven, half of which were visiting from Paris. Everything was sensational with resulting comments saying it was like being in Paris in Australia. I was lucky enough to try a few things across our shared entrees and cheeky tastings of others dishes but the main dishes I had (and pictured) were:

Smoked Salmon and Dill Baguette
Salmon and Potato Cake with Rocket, Capers and Aioli
Chocolate Marquise with Frangelico Ice Cream

The Parisians did made some comments here and there that ingredients had been added to the traditional dishes that they didn’t expect (e.g. cassoulet) but not in a negative way. It could just be a different region thing. Also, we were a little surprised that, as the chefs appeared (towards the end), none that we saw were actually French but all in all a terrific restaurant and absolutely we’ll be back.