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

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.

www.lagrandebouffe.com.au/

MKR’s Jessie & Biswa’s Goat Sindhi Biryani

After the hype around Jessie & Biswa, I couldn’t help but make one of their dishes to decide for myself if they are the culinary geniuses that they proclaim to be.

Yes the recipe turned out quite nice but I’m baffled that Jessie & Biswa see this as a competition dish?

Note I did a chicken version.

Preparation time: At least 30 minutes marinading + 2 hours cook time

Cooking time: Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

·         Raisins, to serve

·         Cashews, to serve

·         Walnuts, to serve

·         Flaked almonds, to serve

Chicken

·         1kg chicken breast cut into 3cm pieces

·         100g natural yoghurt

·         Juice of 1 lime

·         4 tsp salt

·         2 tbs vegetable oil

·         1 large brown onion, finely chopped

·         4 garlic cloves, crushed

·         3cm-piece fresh ginger, finely grated

·         8 black peppercorns, ground

·         5 green cardamom pods

·         5 bay leaves

·         3 cloves

·         1 tbs ground coriander

·         2 cinnamon quills

·         2 tsp chilli powder

·         2 tsp turmeric

·         2 tsp paprika

·         2 tsp ground cumin

·         2 tsp cumin seeds

·         2 black cardamom pods

·         250ml (1 cup) water

·         10 prunes

·         4 long green chillies, 3 whole, 1 finely sliced

Rice

·         500g basmati rice

·         8 green cardamom pods

·         ¼ tsp saffron threads, soaked in

·         60ml (1/4 cup) milk

·         50g butter, chopped

·         Salt and pepper, to season

Tomato Cucumber Salad

·         4 small vine tomatoes, quartered

·         1 small Lebanese cucumber, chopped

·         ½ bunch mint, leaves picked

·         ½ bunch coriander, leaves picked

·         1 long red chilli, thinly sliced

·         2 tbs red wine vinegar

Raita

·         1 cup Greek yoghurt

·         1 garlic clove, crushed

·         2 tbs chopped mint

·         1 Lebanese cucumber, deseeded, grated

·         1 tbs lemon juice

METHOD

1.       Wash goat thoroughly, then pat dry with paper towel. Place goat in a large bowl, then add yoghurt, lime and salt. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

2.       Preheat oven to 150C.

3.       Heat oil in a large flameproof casserole dish over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Stir in garlic, ginger and spices and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Return goat to dish with remaining ingredients. Cover lightly and transfer to oven. Cook for 2-3 hours or until very tender.

4.       Meanwhile, to make rice, place rice in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 30 minutes, then drain. Cook in boiling water with cardamom pods until just tender. Drain. Stir through saffron mixture and butter, then season with salt and pepper.

5.       To make tomato cucumber salad, combine all ingredients in a bowl.

6.       To make raita, combine all ingredients in a bowl.

7.       Arrange a layer of rice on each serving plate. Top with a layer of goat curry, then a little raita. Sprinkle raisins and nuts on top and serve with salad on the side.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/my-kitchen-rules/recipes/recipe/-/16038846/goat-sindhi-biryani/

Left Over Basil?

I bought a Bunch of Basil for the sake of 15 leaves and made sure the rest didn't go to waste by making this awesome marinade for salmon and prawns. It was terrific. Key is to not over cook, take it off as soon as it even thinks about crusting.

1/4 cup nuts

1/3 cup Parmesan

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 tsp Salt or to taste 

Pepper to taste

Recipe - Chocolate tart

Chocolate tart

The whole tart serves 10 but I decided to use half the mix to make individual tarts and also individual desserts.

Filling

·         400 gm  dark chocolate (56% cocoa solids), finely chopped

·         260 ml  pouring cream

·         120 ml  milk

·         2  small eggs (50gm each), lightly beaten

For dusting:         

·         Dutch-process cocoa

To serve: 

·         vanilla ice-cream

Sweet pastry

·         150 gm  softened butter

·         100 gm  caster sugar

·         250 gm  (12/3 cups) plain flour

·         25 gm  almond meal

·         egg yolk

·         Juice of ½ lemon

·         Seeds of  ½ vanilla bean

 Method

1.       For sweet pastry, beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer, add flour and almond meal and stir to combine. Add egg yolk, lemon juice, vanilla seeds and 1 tbsp iced water and stir to combine. Pat into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate to rest (1 hour). Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick, line a 24cm-diameter fluted tart tin, trim edges and refrigerate to rest (30 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C. Blind bake tart until edges are golden (10-12 minutes), remove paper and weights, bake until base is golden (7-8 minutes) and set aside.

2.       Meanwhile, place chocolate in a bowl, set aside. Bring cream and milk to the simmer in a saucepan over medium heat, add to chocolate, stand until chocolate melts (1-2 minutes), stir to combine, cool slightly, then stir in beaten egg.

3.       Reduce oven to 130C. Pour chocolate mixture into tart and bake until just set with a slight wobble in centre (30-35 minutes). Set aside to cool, dust with cocoa and serve at room temperature with ice-cream.

This recipe is from the July 2012 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Image of whole tart courtesy of Gourmet Traveller. Individual dessert image and mini tart image taken by me.

Recipe - Vine Leaves

This is the recipe from the "Whispers from a Lebanese Kitchen" cookbook.

I did 1 lemon vs the suggested 2 and it was still a little more lemony than I what I prefer so I'll have to have a play with that next time - also the recipe doesn't say it but do make sure you use fresh tomatoes.

Lunch for My Parents – Dessert: Apple & Blackberry Tarte Tatin

For this dessert I used the recipe from Everyday Gourmet with Justine Shofield http://www.everydaygourmet.tv/recipes/258, just used blueberries instead of blackberries.

Ingredients

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

100g caster sugar

80 ml brandy

3-4 apples, peeled and cored, cut into half horizontally

50g butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground clove

1 cup frozen blackberries

Recipe by: Justine

Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Method

·         Pre heat the oven to 190C.

·         Heat sugar in a 26cm no stick frying pan to form a caramel.

·         Once the sugar starts to change colour, add the brandy and allow to bubble away for a few minutes until it is a deep caramel colour.

·         Now add the apples, butter, cinnamon and clove and stir gently to coat all the apples in the sticky caramel.

·         Cook for about 5 minutes before adding the frozen blackberries.

·         Lay the pastry over the apple and blackberries and then tuck in all sides, as if it were a blanket.

·         Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

·         Once cooked, bring it out of the oven and gently twist the pastry to ensure nothing is stuck to the pan.

·         With certainty, in one big gesture, flip the tart tatin upside down onto a plate.

·         Serve with cold crème Anglaise or vanilla bean ice cream.

Lunch for My Parents – Side: Potato Gratin

This recipe is from Everyday Gourmet With Justine Schofield. I do have better Gratin recipes. I found this one to be a tad on the dry side.

Ingredients

5 royal blues potatoes or Desiree
¼ cup cream
¼ cup milk

15g butter

1/2 cup freshly grated gruyere or parmesan
1tsp. grated nutmeg

3 sprigs thyme
Salt and pepper

Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 6-8

Method

·         Pre heat the oven to 180C

·         Peel and mandolin or very finely slice the potatoes.

·         Grease a baking tray and line with grease proof paper.

·         Layer the thin slices of potatoes.

·         Every third layer add a little of the milk, cream, a few knobs of butter, a sprinkle of nutmeg, a few thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Make sure that you press down on each layer.

·         Finish with a little parmesan.

·         Place another sheet of grease proof paper on top of potatoes and another tray.

·         Bake for 30-40 minutes in the oven.

·         Now remove the top tray and top layer of grease proof paper and finish under the grill until golden brown

Lunch for My Parents – Entrée: Prawn Cocktail

The recipe  “Neil Perry: Prawn cocktail” on http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/prawn_cocktail.htm was mostly followed for this starter.

Here’s the recipe and what I did due to horseradish being out of season and confusion over the type of tomato sauce that was to be used:

Serves 4

Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins

·         150 gm (about ¼)  iceberg lettuce, outer leaves and core removed, finely shredded

·         2 lemon wedges, plus extra to serve

·         2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

·         16 large cooked king prawns, peeled, tails intact and intestinal tracts removed (I had smaller ones so used 30)

·         N.B I also added ¾ of a large avocado

Cocktail sauce

·         140 ml thick good-quality mayonnaise

·         1 tbsp tomato sauce (I used 1.5 tbsps tomato chutney as I want clear on whether ‘tomato sauce’ meant ketchup)

·         1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

·         1 tsp finely grated fresh horseradish (as this isn’t in season I bought some good quality horseradish cream and subbed 1.5 teaspoons of horseradish cream)

·         Pinch of cayenne pepper

·         Dash of Tabasco sauce

 Method

1.       For sauce, combine ingredients and season to taste with sea salt and ground black pepper.

2.       Divide lettuce among 4 plates, squeeze 2 lemon wedges over and drizzle with oil. Season to taste, top with prawns, avocado and serve with cocktail sauce and lemon wedges.

N.B you’ll see I presented mine a little differently and it was an absolute hit!!! And the cocktail sauce was awesome.

Review - Raffi's Cafe - Chatswood

If you're looking for a casual cafe lunch in the area with easy parking, quick service, great menu variety, quality food and no tidal wave of kids running around - head for Raffi's. We needed a quick lunch so popped in on a Saturday and ordered the chicken schnitzel sandwich and the corn fritters and drinks. We were in and out in under half an hour and the bill was just over $30. Perfect for the purpose!

Recipe - Beef in red wine pot pie

AWESOME recipe!!! I used the recipe off http://www.everydaygourmet.tv/recipes/21 and swapped the beef for Turkey. It was a little tedious as I sued shanks then took the meat off myself but so worth it. I served this for my husband’s birthday dinner just with a salad a chips and they were a hit. They are very filling too – the bread rolls didn’t even get touched!

NB if you go to the link – oddly they don’t mention what to do with the carrot and celery however I have outlined this below.

Ingredients

1 kg chuck steak (I replaced with Turkey)

Flour, for dusting

1 carrot, grated

1 celery stick finely diced

500g speck, fried (I replaced with pancetta)

200ml beef stock (I replaced with chicken stock)

600ml red wine

300ml port

1 x brown onion diced, finely

500g mushrooms, fried

1 clove

1 clove of garlic

2 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

2 sheets of puff pastry

1 egg

1 tbs water

Time: 1.5 hrs

Serves: 4

Method

1.       Cut the beef into large cubes. Roll cubes in flour. Add oil to a non-stick frypan or pot and seal meat on a high heat until nicely browned. Remove from pan and place in a plate.

2.       In the same pot, fry diced onion and garlic until soft and golden.

3.       Add carrots and celery and fry for 2 minutes

4.       Now, add the meat and its juices back to the onion. Add fried mushrooms and speck, cloves and thyme, bay leaf and the red wine and port. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer 10 minutes.

5.       Now add the stock and let simmer for 1 hour. The sauce should be thick and rich in consistency. If it is not, combine a little cornflour and water in a bowl and stir into the stew until the right thickness. Let the stew cool slightly.

6.       Place the bourguignon in bowls and cover with the defrosted puff pastry. Cut a slit in the centre of the pastry and firmly seal around the edges. Brush with egg wash.

7.       Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

8.       (NOTE: you can use mash potato instead of puff pastry)

Recipe - Chicken Tajine With Apricots

Great tasty weeknight healthy meal although (naughty naughty) I did use stock instead of water for flavour.

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/chicken-tajine-with-apricots/

Serves 4

Ingredients

·         8 chicken thighs;

·         2 onions;

·         1 fennel bulb;

·         8 dried apricots;

·         A large handful of raisins;

·         2 cloves garlic minced;

·         1 tsp cumin;

·         1tsp coriander;

·         1 tsp turmeric;

·         1 tsp dried ginger;

·         1 tsp paprika;

·         Fresh coriander to taste;

·         3 cups water;

·         4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil;

·         Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste;

Preparation

1.       Take all 8 chicken thighs and remove the skin.

2.       Cut a straight line in each of the (pieces) chicken tight.

3.       Put all the chicken in a bowl and add 2 tbsp of olive oil.

4.       Add all the spices and the minced garlic to the chicken except the fresh coriander and mix it all until the pieces are all covered.

5.       Place the mixture in the refrigerator for about two hours. This step is optional, but recommended to achieve a more flavorful chicken.

6.       While the chicken is in the refrigerator, cut the onions and fennel into small chunks.

7.       Once the chicken is ready, on a stove-top at a medium heat add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a skillet and cook it for about three minutes on each side, until all the sides are golden brown. Here the chicken doesn’t need to be cooked through.

8.       Add the onions and the fennel and sauté for about 2 or 3 minutes.

9.       Add all the remaining ingredients.

10.   Cover up and cook for about 1 to 1.5 hours.

11.   Verify the chicken once in a wile and add water if necessary to keep it moist.

Recipe - Wild Rice, Fennel and Almond Salad

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• Bunch of shallots chopped
• 2 bulbs fennel finely chopped
• 2 cups rice (all wild or a combination of wild and brown)
• Chicken stock (proportionate to the amount of rice)
• ½ bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 200g dryroasted almonds, coarsely chopped

Method

1. Melt butter in a saucepan
2. Add shallots
3. Add fennel
4. Add rice and Chicken stock
5. When rice is cooked cool down.
6. Stir through the parsley and dry roasted almonds
7. Season to taste and serve.
8. N.b sometimes I cheat and put the rice and stock in a rice cooker, then cook the shallots and fennel in a saucepan then transfer it in to the rice cooker when they’re cooked.

Recipe - Sauce for Brocolli (or other Greens)

1/2 Spanish onion grated

2 cloves garlic grated

Juice of 1 small lemon

2 tomatoes grated (throw skin)

Salt and pepper

Method

- Combine all the above ingredients

- Cook vegetables your preferred way

- Pour the sauce over the vegetables while still hot, and either cook for another 2 mins or simply stir through and let sit.

- Enjoy!

Sent from my iPad

Review - El Phoenician, The Rocks

6 of us went for lunch on a Sunday and decided to have the banquet. For the location and quality of food it was very well priced at $56pp for the banquet we selected and *warning warning warning* don't love the dips and starters as much as I did as you won't be able to move come the mains!

The starters included feta, marinated pickles, Homous, Baba Ganouje, Labne, Tabouli and Salad.

Next came Falafel, Lamb Pastry, Cauliflower, Skewered chicken, Skewered lamb and Potato coriander. It was fantastic as when we explained the ratio of chicken only eaters vs lamb/ chicken eaters vs vegetarian everything was adjusted accordingly and happily by the staff.

Pic doesn't show much as I only took a breath and a pause in eating towards the end and remembered to take a pic then therefor the pic is of a demolished table sorry.

Highly recommend!

http://el-phoenician.com.au/the-rocks/home/

Recipe - Ratatouille

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant, diced
• 2.5 tbs olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 sticks celery finely chopped
• 3 teaspoons baby capers, rinsed
• 200g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Pinch Sugar
• Basil leaves (4-6)

Method

1. Salt eggplant and leave to drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry
2. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a large plan and cook eggplant over high heat until browned. Remove to plate.
3. Add remaining oil and cook onion, capsicum, celery and garlic for 3 – 4 minutes or until softened. Add capers, then eggplant, tomatoes, vinegar and sugar and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes. Season. Tear over basil leaves.

Note - if you can do the capsicum & eggplant on the bbq