Tag Archives: recipe

Black bean chicken stir-fry

Posted in Chinese/Asian, Food, Recipes by

I have been busy very these days so I haven’t been keeping up with this blog lately. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been eating :) On one of the rare days I get to watch TV I was watching Kylie Kwong make blue swimmer crabs with black bean sauce and that made me salivate. Too bad I had no crabs on hand so I used chicken instead for the dish and adapted other ingredients and it was good.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

1/2 carrot, cut into star shaped
1 small stalk celery, sliced into thin diagonals
3 whole chicken breasts, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small red capsicum, cut into squares
4 teaspoons Lee Kum Kee black bean garlic sauce or 2-3 teaspoons black beans
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1-2 teaspoons Shao Xing wine
1-2 teaspoons sugar
oil for stir-frying

Method

1. In a wok, bring 2 litres of water to a rapid boil and add in carrots and celery. Boil for 1-2 minutes and remove from wok. Set aside.

2. Drain water from the wok and wipe it dry. Heat wok on high heat then add in about 3 tablespoons of oil and swirl to coat the wok. Stir fry chicken in 2 batches until cooked. Transfer onto a plate and reserve chicken juice that have come out. Set aside. Then heat 1 tablespoon of oil on high heat and stir fry capsicum for 1 minute. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

3. In the same wok, saute garlic in 1 tablespoon oil. Add in black bean sauce, sesame oil, and Shao Xing wine. Saute for about 30 seconds. Then add in reserved chicken juice and mix well. Add sugar and adjust according to your taste. Add in chicken and sauté and coat it with the black bean sauce for about a minute. Then add in the vegetables and mix together with the chicken and sauce.

4. Transfer to a serving plate and serve with rice.

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Quiche Lorraine

Posted in Food, French, Recipes by

I am happy to report that my first attempt at making a proper quiche was a success. I have been devouring quiches for years now like there’s tomorrow and me attempting to make one from scratch was long overdue. Watching an episode of Masterchef Australia sparked my flame of quiche making. This one here is a Quiche Lorraine. I had Lily and D over for a French-themed dinner and Lily made it clear to me that she loooooves quiche Lorraine.

Menu for the night:

  • Entree – Mushroom soup
  • Main – Quiche Lorraine (recipe follows)
  • Dessert – Tarte au citron from La Galette de France in Subi sponsored by Lily
  • Drinks – Rekorderlig and Sangria sponsored by D (not really French but any alcohol would do)

Ingredients

Shortcut pastry
240 grams plain flour
125 grams butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2-4 tablespoons (or more) cold water

Filling
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 leek (white part and some green), roughly chopped
200 grams bacon, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Custard
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
300 ml cream

Makes 1 large quiche or 4-5 mini quiches

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Lightly grease a large loose-bottom tart tin.

Make the pastry shells
3. In a food processor, add in flour, salt, and chilled butter and blend/pulse until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add in egg and process until the mixture forms a ball. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time if the mixture is not forming into a ball. Dump the dough onto a floured bench and need for about 1-2 minutes until it becomes a smooth dough. Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes in the fridge.

2. After the dough has rested, take it out of the fridge and work on a floured bench. Flatten the dough with your palms. Then using a rolling pin roll the dough until it is about 2-3mm thick. Ensure that it is bigger than your tin. Gently lift the dough and place it into your tart tin while gradually pressing the dough onto the tin. Ensure that you lightly press the dough to the shape of the tin including the bottom round edge.

3. To get that perfect fluted pattern (if using a fluted tin), instead of trimming the excess dough with a knife, I use a rolling pin to roll over the tin itself then peel off the excess dough. Dough will slightly shrink during baking so lightly press the dough on the side of the tin upwards – about 3-5mm higher than the tin. Then prick the base and sides of the dough with a fork.

4. Top the dough with a sheet of baking paper with loose sides that will be easy to lift out after baking. Fill the baking paper with uncooked rice or baking beads to serve as weights for the pastry shell.

5. Pop the pastry into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Then remove the baking paper and rice or baking beads and return the pastry into the oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until golden in colour.

*Pastry shell/s can be made in advance. I made mine 1 day prior to making the actual quiche. Let it cool completely and store in an airtight container or wrap with a plastic wrap.

Cook the filling
6. In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and cook the onions and leeks until onions are translucent and leeks are soft. Transfer the mixture onto a plate and set aside. In the same pan, cook the bacon until some of the fat has rendered and it starts browning. Add back the onion mixture and mix well to combine. Set aside.

Make the custard
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, egg yolks, and cream until well combined.

Assemble the quiche
8. Spread the bacon, onion, and leek mixutre on the base of the cooked pastry shell. Pour in the egg mixture. Egg will shrink slightly after it’s baked so fill the whole pastry with the egg mixture up to the top of the shell but ensure that it doesn’t overflow. Then top with a generous amount of Gruyere cheese.

9. Carefully place the tin in the oven and bake at 200 degrees Celcius for 17 minutes. Drop the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius and continue baking for about 15-18 minutes until the custard is set. You can test this by inserting a toothpick into the centre of the quiche and if it comes out clean the quiche is set.

*Note that if making the mini quiche, baking time would be about 2-3 minutes less.

10. Take the quiche out of the tin and transfer to a serving plate.

11. Serve and enjoy.

Cream of mushroom soup

Posted in Food, French, Recipes by

Reminiscing the cream of mushroom soup I had in Toronto’s Biff’s Bistro, I made my own version last night. I’m trying to watch my calorie intake these days so my version is not as creamy as I would have loved it to be. Instead of using heavy cream I added a few dollops of creme fraiche instead to make it rich.

The recipe below gives about 4 bowls of heart-warming soup.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil, or 1/2 stick butter
1/2 onion, cubed
5 cups coarsely chopped mushrooms of different varieties (I used a mixture of button and Swiss brown cap mushrooms)
1 litre (4 cups) stock (chicken or vegetable)
1 cup heavy cream, or 3-4 tablespoons creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste
parsley (to garnish)

Method

1. In a medium sized stock pot, melt butter and saute onions until soft. Add in mushrooms and saute until soft (about 5-7 minutes).

2. Add in stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to medium. Continue boiling for 10-15 minutes.

3. When mushrooms are completely soft, turn off the heat. Using a handheld blender blitz the soup until mushrooms are finely blended. Alternatively, you can use a blender and pour soup back in the pot after blending. Bring the soup back to a simmer and add the heavy cream or creme fraiche. Mix well until cream is evenly mixed into the soup. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Serve in bowls and garnish with a few leaves of parsley if desired.

Donna Hay Easter cupcakes

Posted in Recipes by

I was given a very short notice at work yesterday that I was making mini cupcakes for our Easter morning tea slash colleagues birthday. This was due to my showing off of the new mini cupcake pan that I bought during my lunch break that had all the ladies in the office craving for some cupcakes. So all my plans of studying that night went out the window and I stopped by the supermarket instead looking for inspiration for my cupcakes.

I’m just gonna go ahead and say this: I have never used pre-mixes for my baking needs. Never. I like making things from scratch and although it is time consuming to get your measurements right, spooning and leveling flour soothes me. But I was intrigued with the Donna Hay blue pre-mix boxes staring at me in the baking aisle. Out of all the boxes on the shelf, Donna Hay’s stood out because they look natural. Natural and homey. I thought I’d give that a shot since I was pressed for time anyway. The Donna Hay pre-mix range has cupcakes, brownies and macarons. Out of the spur of the moment I bought them all!

Last night was about the cupcakes though. I bought both the vanilla and the chocolate variety. I know, my colleagues are always spoiled with sweets. The package comes with all the dry ingredients you need and you just have to supply the wet and perishable ingredients such as butter, eggs and milk. The instructions are printed clearly on the box so it was easy to follow.

Ingredients

Cupcake
1 box Donna Hay vanilla cupcake or chocolate mix
125 g butter, softened
2 eggs
180 ml milk

Icing
1 packet Donna Hay icing mix (from the box)
125 g butter, softened
1 tablespoon milk

You can easily follow the instructions on how to make the batter and icing so I won’t repeat it here. Basically you just whip everything together until you get a smooth batter then you’re ready to pop them in the oven.

You let them cool while whipping up the icing and voila! Cupcakes are ready. And because it’s Easter I topped them with mini Easter eggs. The box said the recipe yields 12 big cupcakes but I ended up with more than that. I had 12 big cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes of each flavour. So yes that was quite a lot of cupcakes.

So that I can honestly judge the result of the pre-mixes, I followed whatever is printed on the box as it is. It told me to whip the butter for 10 minutes I stood there and held my handheld mixer for 10 minutes while watching Modern Family.

The verdict on Donna Hay’s cupcake pre-mixes? Overall, they were delicious and really easy to make but they are not without flaws. Let me list out what I like about the pre-mix and what I think needs improvement.

Pros

  • fresh, tasty, and insanely moist cupcakes
  • easy to follow recipes
  • sweetness was just right, even for the icing
  • provides a good basic cupcake base that you can dress up
  • comes with cupcake liners
  • not greasy, not one bit of grease mark on the tins and I dont even have to wash them
  • office people loved both the chocolate and the vanilla ones

Cons

  • Just for the chocolate cupcakes – the liners peeled off from the cupcake even before I got to ice them and even more liners peeled off due to vehicular movement when I transported them to the office
  • more accurate description on the box (e.g. yields 12 cupcakes but I ended up with almost twice the amount)

At this stage, I am really pumped to start using the macarons and brownie pre-mix.

Have a blessed Easter! xo

 

 

French toast with mangoes, maple syrup and creme fraiche

Posted in Breakfast/Brunch, Food, Recipes by

This is a variation of the French toast I had this week. One of our family friends gave us homegrown mangoes so I used those instead of bananas. I also had extra creme fraiche sitting in the fridge so I had the inkling to use that as well. And, of course, another round of maple syrup. Wow. This was even better than the french toast with banana version. I have had French toasts 3 days in a row now. One can never get enough of them!

French toast with mangoes, maple syrup and creme fraiche

Ingredients

1 piece egg
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons milk
2 pieces of bread (brioche preferred but any bread would do), sliced diagonally
1 piece small mango, peeled and cut into small pieces
maple syrup
2-3 tablespoons creme fraiche
oil or butter for pan frying

Method

1. In a shallow dish, beat the egg with the cream and milk. Add in the slices of bread and let it soak the egg batter for a few seconds on each side.

2. Heat oil or butter in a pan. Pan fry the slices of bread until golden brown on each side.

3. Plate up the french toasts. Arrange the slices of bread on a plate. Then top with mangoes and drizzle with maple syrup. Finish off with a dollop of creme fraiche on top.

4. Serve and enjoy.

French toast with bananas and maple syrup

Posted in Breakfast/Brunch, Food, Recipes by

French toast is one of my most favourite food for breakfast (or snacks). It gives me a great sense of comfort every time I eat it probably because my granny used to make this for me when I was little. Of course back then granny’s french toasts were merely topped with caster sugar. We didn’t have the luxury of syrup when I was a kid. I have made my own upgrades since then.

This one is really simple easy to make and hits all the right spots. This is one of those occassions where I would use the maple syrup I bought from Montreal sparingly.

French toast with bananas and maple syrup

Ingredients

1 piece egg
2 tablespoons cream
3 tablespoons milk
2 pieces of bread (brioche preferred but any bread would do), crusts cut off then sliced diagonally
1 piece small banana, sliced into small pieces
maple syrup
oil or butter for pan frying
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

1. In a shallow dish, beat the egg with the cream and milk. Add in the slices of bread and let it soak the egg batter for a few seconds on each side.

2. Heat oil or butter in a pan. Pan fry the slices of bread until golden brown on each side.

3. Plate up the french toasts. Arrange the slices of bread on a plate. Then top with bananas and drizzle with maple syrup. Sprinkle with a little bit of icing sugar if desired.

4. Serve and enjoy.

Celebrating Aussie day!

Posted in Food, Recipes by

Folks, it’s that time of the year again in Australia where you see people, young and old, men and women, patriotically adorn themselves in all things Australian – koala hats, kangaroo fur coats, crocodile sunnies and vegemite thongs. I am kidding, of course. What you’ll actually see though is the humble Aussie flag in all shapes and sizes – bikinis, flip flops, board shorts, beach towels, stubbie holders…and the list goes on and on.

The weather was forecasted to be a scorching 40 degrees Celcius; good enough reason for most people to flock to the beach. Avoiding the sun and the massive crowd, I think it was fairly smart of us (me and the gang) to start the celebrations indoors. The idea is to eat all things Aussie on January 26th. As it is really a pain to cook in such heat we all agreed to keep things simple. L signed up to bring meat pies; I volunteered to make mini pavlovas; D played host and supplied chilled Coke and other hard stuff liquor.

The meat pies and quiche were store bought because everyone banned me from using the oven on this day (though I gladly offered to make healthier pies). The pavlovas were (almost entirely) homemade. Here’s how I made it -

Summer Pavlova (Aussie themed)

Ingredients

1 box (10 pieces) ready-made meringue (bought mine from Coles)
1 carton whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks
2 oranges, juiced
1 lemon, juiced
4 tablespoons icing sugar
1 – 1 1/2 cups raspberries (for red colour or use blueberries for blue colour)
a couple handfuls of mixed berries (raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry)
1 mango, cut into small pieces
2-3 green kiwis, cut into small wedges

Method
1. To make the coulis – In a food processor, combine orange juice, lemon juice, icing sugar and raspberries and blend together. You can alternatively use a blender or a hand blender. Taste it to ensure that the coulis is not to sour. Add more icing sugar if needed. The amount of sugar needed depends on how sweet the berries are. Then pass the mixture through a sieve to strain out all the seeds.

2. Assemble the pavlova – Arrange the meringues on a serving plate. Top with 2 dollops of cream and cover the entire top of the meringue. Then spoon a couple tablespoons of the coulis on top of the cream. Finally, arrange a handful of mixed berries on top and a few wedges of mangoes and kiwis. Mixed berries and meringue are the Aussie flag colours while mangoes and kiwis are for green and gold, Australian National Colours.

3. Serve at once and dig in.

Other than meat pies, 99.9% of what we eat and do on this day involves and revolves around the barbie. You can fire up your own barbie at home or pack your eskis and head down to the beach or parks to use the communal barbies available. The stuff you’ll find on the grill is limited only by your imagination. We have meat in all varieties and cuts – beef, chicken, pork, kangaroo – sausages, kebabs, veggies, onions, corn on the cob, ginormous mushrooms, garlic bread…mmm, just re-thinking about it is enough to make me drool. So then you’d pair off all those meat and veg with a couple of beers chilled in your eskis, or sodas for the younger bubs.

We went to the beach a few hours later; found ourselves a good spot amongst the crowd; and loved every second of it. It sure was very hot but the breeze from the ocean was very soothing. L and I rotated between getting a tan and chasing massive waves. As you can see below, the sun was glaring so I spent every 5 minutes applying sunscreen. Fun times at the beach, yo.

Come dinner time we headed back to D’s place and polished off the leftover quiche and pavlovas. The weather quickly turned sour and it began pouring rain. Uh oh. Was the fireworks show still on? Thankfully it was. Thirty minutes of fireworks show with commentaries and music to end the night.

Milk poached fish fillets with broccolini

Posted in Food, Recipes by

If you have fish fillets in the fridge and more than enough cans of evaporated milk in the pantry, what do you get? Milk poached fish fillets. My family seem to love buying freshwater bass fillets and I am starting to get tired of the usual panfry way we cook it. So without the fussy eaters at home I made a new dish. Poaching the fish fillets turned out really well and I am very happy with it.

I had this with rice for one meal and with fresh pasta for lunch at work.

The only thing I would change is my pan. It would’ve been better to use a heavy bottom pan or a casserole pan like this because the milk burned too quickly in the pan I used. Lots of scrubbing was done after eating the dish.

 

Ingredients

1 can evaporated milk (or 1/2 can evaporated milk plus 1/2 can normal milk)
4 cloves garlic, pounded and peeled
1/4 thumb ginger, sliced
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons salt
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
2 pieces freshwater basa fillets, sliced into 3-inch wide pieces
2-3 bunches broccolini, stalks cut off and flowers cleaned well

Method

1. In a large heavy bottom pan, pour in evaporated milk and bring to a simmer. Add in garlic, ginger, paprika salt and pepper and continue simmering for about 3-5 minutes until the garlic and ginger have infused their flavours into the milk.

2. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on both sides of the fish fillet. Then add them in the pan and arrange them so that all pieces are covered with milk. They need not be submerged but has to be in contact with the milk. Cover the pan and keep the milk at a simmer.

3. When the fish fillets are half cooked, flip them over so the other side is in contact with the milk and add in broccolini. Simmer until the fish is fully cooked and the broccolini is to your desired crunchiness.

4. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed.

5. Serve hot with rice or pasta and enjoy!

Recipe: Stewed tomatoes with ham and egg

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I have, admittedly, been eating a lot of tomatoes lately. Once in a while I get this craving for some acidic taste such as tomatoes hence I stock up on fresh tomatoes, as well as canned ones for those lazy days.

A few months back I bought these 2 mini tagines that I have yet to use. They are so tiny there’s hardly anything you can fit in them but I bought them regardless because they were so cute. It must have been a dream but I woke up one Sunday with this idea to make breakfast with the tagines. I was tossing back and forth in bed the night before thinking of what to use the tagines for and i think this led to me dreaming about the tagines.

I woke up all pumped up and fresh from my dream ready to make breakfast. I searched the whole house for those little ceramic cookware to no avail. Someone in the house has a habit of packing things up and then when you actually need it no one remembers where they have packed those things. Sigh. Everyone else was still sleeping so I was hesitant to wake them up for the sake of my little tagines.

But fear not. Due to my need of having the kind of breakfast I want (otherwise it’s going to be a very long and hard day) I rummaged the house and found a very tiny saucepan. It was bigger than the tagine I originally planned to use but it was better than nothing. And since it was bigger I had a fuller breakfast than I originally intended either. It made me so full and sleepy I swear I could’ve went back to bed.

Anyway, the breakfast I dreamt about consisted of tomatoes, ham and egg. I intended to stew the tomatoes with ham and then topped with egg. I was going for a rustic and chunky kind of breakfast and I was pretty happy with the results. You can, of course, eat this with Italian bread or sourdough or plain toast but I went on a bagel craze phase so I ate it with a bagel (and straight out of the pan might I add).

Ingredients

1/2 can Annalisa brand whole tomatoes
1 slice of ham, either left whole (fairly thick about 1/2-inch) or sliced into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup red wine
sprinkle of thyme (dried or fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg

Method

1. In a small saucepan sautee the ham in a little oil until browned. Then add in canned tomatoes, red wine and thyme. Let it simmer on low heat for about 1 minute.

2. At this point adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper before adding the egg.

3. Once you’re happy with the taste, add in the egg by gently cracking it in the middle of the pan. Cover the saucepan and let the egg cook until the yolk is to your desired doneness.

4. Serve and enjoy.

Recipe: Cherry tomatoes and bocconcini salad

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A few days ago, Auntie J’s friend gave us a big box full of cherry tomatoes (the bigger variety). Day after day we’ve been stewing them, dumping them in omelettes, eating them raw and however else one can eat cherry tomatoes.

I was walking by the dairy section of a supermarket and a lightbulb flashed above my head! I haven’t had bocconcini in a very long time. Why not add this to the cherry tomatoes and turn them into a refreshing salad? So that is exactly what I did. I am hardly a cheese connoisseur but bocconcini I like. It has a very mild cheese taste, not as smelly as other cheeses and, let’s face it, the spongy texture and the bite-size pieces add to the fun of eating them.

Ingredients

15-20 pieces cherry tomatoes, either left whole or cut into halves depending on their size
1 tub bocconcini (about 15 pieces in the tub)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
sprinkle of garlic salt
freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. In a salad bowl, dump in the tomatoes and bocconcini.

2. Add in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic salt and black pepper.

3. Toss the mixture until evenly coated.

4. Serve and enjoy.

My labour of love for duck

Posted in Food, French by

My love for anything duck is beyond words. It wasn’t until today though that I have actually attempted to cook with it. I had the impression that duck is hard to cook so I leave it to the pros to tingle my senses.

Last week I went to a cooking class at Cook Learn Love led by former Bistro Felix head chef, Helen Pratt. The class was for French bistro and I was excited to learn how to cook duck. We went through the step by step of making duck confit with potato gratin for the mains and that photo on the left is the finished product. I have used that as a basis for my first attempt with duck confit. The potatoes – well I didn’t have enough time to make the gratin so I made something much simpler to go with the duck. So here’s my journey with the duck that took 2 days to make and 5 minutes to consume…

Friday arvo. I frantically left the office to make it in time before the butcher closes. I got there with 15 minutes to spare. I asked if they had duck and all they had was frozen duck so I had to buy it regardless since I don’t know anywhere else that sells non frozen duck. And because I have a big family I also bought 2 extra frozen duck legs. The duck and duck parts sat on my kitchen counter for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning. The duck was already defrosted although some parts still had icicles. We’ve been having hot and humid weather lately so I don’t know why it wasn’t already completely defrosted when I got up early that morning. So before work I carved out the 2 legs of the whole duck plus the breast essentially leaving just the frame of the duck that was going to be the stock base. I have never butchered a duck before but I think I did pretty well. I then cured the duck legs with salt and fresh thyme and stuck them back in the fridge. Then I went to work and did not come back until about 5:30pm.

Saturday night. My oven’s busted so I had to go to my friend’s house to borrow her oven for roasting my duck frame. I left the skin and all on the frame because I needed the duck fat for the confit and I was reluctant to buy the fat separately. About 20 minutes later I showed up at my friend’s doorstep with a headless duck sitting in a pan. We had a great dinner while the bones were roasting and the fat was dripping. The roasting went well…until I almost  set her house on fire. The neck was sticking out a bit and the oven was small so it was burning quite quickly. Thick smoke came out of the oven when I opened it to check on the duck but luckily the fire alarm didn’t go off. I saw that enough fat was rendered so I tipped it out onto a bowl and continued roasting the bones until they were golden. That took a good 2.5 hours and then I wrapped the poor duck and took it home.

Sunday morning. I woke up early to start making the stock that was to be reduced to become the sauce. One stalk of celery, half an onion, 1 carrot and the roasted duck frame into a pot of cold water. I let it boil and then switched the fire to low for a bare simmer. Two hours into the simmering, the stock started reducing and the house was filled with duck aroma. I left for church and enlisted Auntie C to keep an eye on it.

Sunday arvo. After church and lunch and other what nots I came back home to find my stock half reduced. It was looking good. I started preparing the duck confit by setting up the slow cooker, dumping in the duck fat and putting in the cured duck legs that have been washed off of the salt and patted dry. While that was cooking I went about doing some housework.

Just a little after 5pm I started reducing the stock to make it super concentrated. Then I prepared the other ingredients that I had in mind to go with the dish. In some ways I have combined what I learned in the class and what I have eaten at Cafe de la Presse in San Francisco into my version of duck confit.

Starting with the potatoes:

2 potatoes, sliced very thinly in round shapes
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 /2 teaspoon fresh thyme
enough duck fat to sauté the potatoes

I scooped out some of the duck fat that was in the slow cooker with the duck legs and heated it in a pan. Sauté the potatoes. Add in the garlic salt and thyme. Set aside.

Then with the mushrooms:

1 cup sliced brown mushrooms
pinch of salt
oil or more duck fat if you so desire

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the mushrooms with salt for about 1 minute. Just do not overcook them so they retain their shape. Set aside.

By the time I have finished preparing the potatoes and the mushrooms, the stock has reached a very concentrated level so I switched off the fire and started preparing the ingredients for the sauce:

2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion sliced
1/2 thumb ginger, sliced
1 orange, juiced
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used apple cider because that was what I had at home)
1 teaspoon sugar
the reduced stock
oil

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a saucepan. Add in garlic, onions and ginger until the onions are caramelised. Then add in the orange juice, vinegar and sugar. One thing I learned at the cooking class was that the sauce needs to be as sour as it is sweet. So I tasted the sauce at this point and was happy with the sweet and sourness. Let it boil for about 1 minute and pour in the reduced stock. Continue boiling until the sauce has reduced further and looks thicker than it was before. The reduced stock was already very salty so I did not need to add any seasoning. Set aside.

At this point, the duck legs were already at their stage of readiness. That means the meat was already falling off the bone with the slightest touch. I took them out of the slow cooker and onto a plate ready for some frying goodness. I took about 2 ladlefull of duck fat from the slow cooker and heated it in a frying pan. Once the fat is hot fry the duck legs skin side down until they are golden and crisp. Do not fry the meat. One the the legs just fell apart so some of the meat was fried and it was not good. It turned dry and hard. So with 3 good legs and 1 “photoshopped” leg ready I started plating up.

Potatoes on the bottom.

Mushrooms in the middle.

Duck legs on top.

Drizzle with the sauce.

Some fancy artwork with the sauce.

A sprig of thyme here and there.

Et voila! Heaven on a plate.

Recipe: Meatballs with tomato sauce

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I’m finally back to reality. After a month of eating out every single day I started feeling a little averse towards restaurant food. I missed home cooked meals and I missed cooking. I find it really frustrating when i get this craving for a certain taste but couldn’t find anything close to satisfying it. This frustration is actually why I love to cook. You get to eat exactly what you want however you want it.

My particular craving while I was out gallivanting? Good quality tomato sauce, with pasta or whatever. Doesn’t really matter so long as it’s tomato sauce. So as soon as I came back to Perth I made meatballs straightaway simmered in tomato sauce. Now I don’t make my own tomato sauce because I’ve yet to do that so the key is finding good quality canned ones. I’ve gone back and forth with brands already but, alas, Annalisa saves the day. It was just exactly the kind of taste I was craving for. I’m not sure if Coles or Woolies carry this brand but the last time I went there wasn’t any so I just assume Annalisa is sold in specialty stores only. I’ve found them at Galati & Sons in Freo or Station Street markets in Subi. Once you’ve had Annalisa you will never look back. Seriously, I can’t believe I’ve put up with this other brand I’ve been using for so long.

Ingredients

Meatballs

1/2 kilo ground beef or pork

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper

1 egg

1 slice bread, made into breadcrumbs

oil

Tomato sauce

1 can Annalisa whole peeled tomatoes

dash of red wine

pinch of thyme

salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the meatballs except the oil and mix well. Then shape into 1-inch balls until all the mixture has been shaped.

2. Heat a medium pan then add enough oil for pan-frying. Cook the meatballs until golden brown on all sides.

3. In the same pan, add in all the ingredients for the tomato sauce. Using your spatula, break/crush/mash the tomatoes until they are chunky. Simmer the meatballs for about 5 minutes. Season to taste.

4. Serve and enjoy.

Recipe: Open steak sandwich

Posted in Food, Modern Australian, Recipes by

A popular item on the menu for most cafes and restaurants but only a few can do justice to the glorious steak sandwich. What I find most disappointing is overdone steak. Next to that would be the quality of the steak – cheap cuts that are chewy and dry when overdone.

I found my kind of perfect steak sandwich at my favourite cafe that is Cimbalino. It’s not called a steak sandwich per se but rather a steak and asparagus saarni (to the best of my memory) – medium done steak, asparagus spears, onion jam and hollandaise sauce on ciabatta bread. There was such an explosion of flavours in my mouth that I almost ordered another serving but I saved room for dessert.

My colleague was just saying that she was going to have a steak sandwich with scotch fillet steaks for dinner and that instantly gave me an idea of what to make for dinner. I went to the supermarket and saw that the scotch fillets were on sale! How meant to be is that?

I had no onion jam so I made my own very caramelised onions for that yummy sweet taste and I made my own sauce as well instead of using hollandaise sauce.

Ingredients

1 piece steak, any tender cuts with no bones
salt & pepper
1 big onion, sliced
salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
3-4 pieces asparagus, boiled
1 toast sliced crusty bread (or turkish bread), toasted

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup red wine
bits of feta cheese
ground black pepper

Method

1. In a pan, heat oil in medium heat and cook onions for about 1 minute. Add a dash of salt and vinegar and keep cooking while stirring once in a while until the onions are brown or caramel in colour. Set aside.

2. In another pan, season steak with salt and pepper and cook it to desired doneness but don’t overcook it. Set aside to let the meat rest and reserve the juices. Slice the steak into about 1/2 inch slices.

3. In the same pan as the steak, melt butter and add in flour. Mix together until it forms a paste. Then add in chicken stock and red wine and stir vigorously until it becomes a sauce consistency. If the sauce is too thick add more chicken stock. Then add in the feta cheese and mix until well combined with the sauce.

4. To plate up, put the asparagus on top of 1 slice of bread. Then top with onions. Then arrange steak slices on top of the onions. Spoon over some sauce. Then finish with cracked pepper.

5. Serve and enjoy.