Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alcohol. Show all posts

Monday, January 25, 2016

An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas

An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas


Even if the weather is hot and gross and the idea of having the oven on is unbearable, sometimes you feel like some roast lamb. That’s not just me, yeah? Thank goodness for hooded BBQs! We will actually roast in the BBQ all year around, not just in summer because Lance likes to get the smoker going to flavour, well, everything. But a smoked leg of lamb is a beautiful thing, so I do not complain. I encourage! This recipe is flavourful enough to not require the smoke, but 9 times out of 10, if you get served a roast at our house, it will be smoked. You can smoke this or not, either way it is pretty spectacular.
Over the past few years, aperitivos have really come into their own in WA as we embrace the bitterness in summery spritzes. I absolutely love the citrusy fresh flavours in Aperol and Campari and the like. We have spritz weather, and a particularly balmy afternoon with an Aperol and soda inspired this recipe. The basic premise of this dish is to balance a leg of lamb atop some chickpeas, onions, garlic and Aperol so that the chickpeas will soak up the delicious lamb juices as well as the boozey liquid below as they cook. It’s important to only rub salt on the top of the leg of lamb, otherwise the chickpeas develop a hard outer shell and become tough. Season the chickpeas at the end of the cooking process. The best part of this recipe is that you can just pop it in the BBQ and leave it cooking and it’s a side dish and meat in one dish. Add a green salad and you are done for dinner, folks. You can rotate the lamb a few times if you want, to ensure even cooking, but I don’t always bother (don't salt the lamb at all if you want to rotate). Still check on the liquid levels every so often to make sure the chick peas don’t dry out. I’ve also added some diced carrots and capsicum to the chickpeas to boost the vege content and that’s also worked a treat. Any leftover chickpeas can be used in salads to take to work the next day, the Aperol scent reminding you that the weekend is no more than 5 days away!

An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas

Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas

1 leg of lamb
2 brown onions, cut into thin half moons
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried chick peas, soaked overnight.
3 sprigs thyme
1 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
1 cup Aperol
1 cup water
Salt and pepper
Rinse your soaked chickpeas and place them in a heatproof bowl or pot. Boil the kettle and pour over the chickpeas. Leave for 20 minutes while you preheat your BBQ to 160C using only the burners on the grill side, not the plate side (alternatively, you can use your oven). Drain the chickpeas.
Spread the chickpeas into the bottom of a roasting pan. Add the onion, garlic and thyme. Pour over the wine, Aperol and water, gently stir it all together. Rest the lamb on top of the chickpeas, presentation side up and put on the plate of the BBQ (indirect heat) and put the lid down. After half an hour, turn the lamb upside-down carefully with tongs. After another half hour, turn the lamb back the right side up. Continue roasting for a further 30-45 minutes, depending on how well done you like your roast. All the while, keep an eye on the liquid level of the chickpeas. They will slowly be soaking up the liquid, but you don’t want them to dry and catch on the bottom, add a little extra water if necessary.

When the lamb is done, remove it from the chickpeas and set aside on a warm plate, tented in foil to rest for 20 minutes. Pop the lid back down on the BBQ, keeping the chickpeas cooking in this twenty minutes, the liquid should evaporate, leaving a sticky gravy-like onion mixture and the chickpeas should be soft. Season to taste, and serve a pile of chickpeas with a few slices of roast lamb and a green salad.

An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas
An Australia Day Roast - Roast Lamb with Aperol Chickpeas

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo

Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo

I don’t know a great deal about the various South American cuisines, other than I enjoy eating most of the flavours. So, with an ignorance of the provenance of mofongo and therefore what is and isn’t actually “mofongo” I am calling this a Kale Mofongo. From what I have read, mofongo is fried plantains roughly mashed together with broth, chicharrones (or bacon), with various pepper and onions as the flavouring ingredients. This has the peppers in the form of chile flakes, and instead of salty bacon, it uses salty anchovies. The kale just makes it much more vege based.


This recipe is barely adapted from a recipe for pasta from the New York Times website. The only two real main differences are the substitution of noodles for plantain and the substitution of rum and broth for water. I figure, why wilt with water when you can wilt with more flavour?? Plus, I seem to have a fairly strong habit of cooking with booze. My love affair with plantains is well and truly continuing. Definitely hunt some down if you can find them!
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo

Garlic and Kale Mofongo

2 green plantains, cut into 5cm discs, peeled.
3 tbsp olive oil
4 anchovy filets
½ teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons capers, drained and stored on paper towel until ready to use
1 bunch kale, ribs removed, chopped
1 shots (30mL) dark rum, such as Angostura
¼ cup chicken or vegetable stock
Half a lime


Heat the olive oil in a large frypan (preferably one with deepish sides for when you’re tossing everything together) to medium heat. In batches if necessary, fry the plantain pieces until golden on each side, and soft – around 3-5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate and set aside.


To the same pan, add a little more oil if the plantains soaked up a lot. You want the bottom of the frypan to be well-coated. Add the anchovies, chili flakes and a fat pinch of salt. Fry, stirring, until the anchovies have dissolved and the chili flakes are toasted, around 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and the capers, cook for 5 minutes. Add kale and rum and cook until kale goes bright green and wilts and about half of the liquid has evaporated. Add the plantains and stir through, mashing as you go with your wooden spoon into the oily, garlicky kale. Everything should be coated with the flavoured oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then squeeze some lime juice over the top just before serving.

Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo
Plantain Love - Garlic and Kale Mofongo

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Muddling Together Memories - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan

Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan

When I was in primary school, we went through a phase of silk worms. Every second family had silk worms. I’m actually surprised there wasn’t a massive rise in silk shirts worn in the local area. I’m assuming it started off as a classroom “pet” or lesson or something. My childhood memories are sketchy at best. But I remember two things about that Silk Worm Saga:

  1. Disused washing machines are a great silk worm home
  2. Silk worms love eating mulberry leaves.

Kids would bring in big bags of mulberry leaves to share about for all the other kids with silk worms. This was my first real memory of mulberries. The second memory I have is visiting my grandma when I was around 12 and seeing her arms and legs scratched to pieces and her triumphantly showing us the ice cream containers full of mulberries she’d picked from the bramble growing wild down the back of her yard. Then we’d get to eat some mulberry compote with ice cream. Good times!

So when I was offered some mulberries, I grabbed a few to take home. Despite most of my recollections of mulberries being deeply rooted in my childhood, I thought a more adult offering was required for their use. Muddling a few with some rosemary and boozing it up with rye and vermouth; Manhattan style was where my tastebud’s imagination took me. Instead of bitters, I layered a teaspoon of Laphraoig whisky on top to give it a smokey edge. The resulting cocktail is strong, mildly sweet and intensely berry-flavoured. Garnish with a chocolate cracker or biscotti.


Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan
Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan
Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan

Muddled Mulberry Manhattan

5 mulberries
1 tsp panela sugar (or raw sugar)
4 fresh rosemary leaves
1 1/2 shots (50mL) rye whisky
3/4 shot (30mL)sweet red vermouth
1 tsp Laphraoig whiskey

Chill a martini glass.

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mulberries, panela and rosemary. Add the rye and vermouth, then top up with ice. Put the lid on and shake until the outside of the container is frosty. 

Strain through the lid, through a tea strainer into the martini glass. Gentle pour the Laphroaig over the top. Enjoy!

Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan
Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan
Cocktail Hour - Muddled Mulberry Manhattan

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille




Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille

Have you ever had a dutch baby? It’s not the most common of dishes here in Perth, but I absolutely love them because of how versatile and easy they are. It’s essentially one large baked pancake. And like normal pancakes, you can flavour them up in any way you want. But unlike normal pancakes that require cooking in batches, this is all done in one go. That makes it one of my go-to dinner dishes for something quick after the gym. I’ll serve it with some form of vegetable concoction to go on top. It’s also one of my go-to breakfast/brunch dishes. It is a super quick dish to prep, and you can chuck it in the oven while you shower, or sitting and quietly having your morning coffee…and before you know it, you have deliciousness. If I’m making a savoury Dutch Baby, then I love making them with chick pea flour. Both for the added protein it adds, and more importantly, for the flavour profile it adds. Just by swapping out the flour, you add that specific slightly smokey, slightly nutty flavour that chickpeas have. It also makes it gluten free, if that’s an issue for you.

I didn’t get any meat out for dinner when I cooked this dish, so I thought I’d make a ratatouille to go with it. I always have tomatoes and zucchini in the house. Always. And, it has been pointed out to me that I cook with booze a lot. Which I did here. I added some gin and blood orange marmalade to add a little oomph.

If you want my favourite version of a chickpea dutch baby, you’ll need to grab a copy of the Recipes and Ramblings III cookbook. In it, it has the recipe for a Spicy Chickpea Dutch Baby with a Tomato Bacon Jam.
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange RatatouilleEasy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille

Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille



Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille


Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille

(serves 2)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp blood orange marmalade
1 shot Gin (I like West Winds Sabre or Gin Mare flavours in this)
3 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 roasted capsicum, roughly chopped
¼ tsp thyme leaves
½ tsp salt
Pepper

Chickpea Flour Dutch Baby

½ cup chickpea flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ cup milk (soured with ½ tsp lime juice)
2 eggs
1 tbsp butter.

Warm the olive oil to medium in a pot. Add the onions and cook until translucent, but not coloured – around 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook a further 2 minutes until that is translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and reduce to a simmer and leave for half an hour or so until all the vegetables are soft and the flavours have intensified. About the time it takes to make the dutch baby!

Heat the oven to 180C

Heat a frypan that can go into the oven to a high heat. In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, pepper and chickpea flour. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Then beat in the soured milk. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and whisk until completely combined.

Add the butter to the pan and swirl to coat the whole bottom of the frypan. Carefully pour the pancake batter into the pan and tilt back and forth to coat the pan. Place in the oven.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the dutch baby puffs up and is golden.
 
Remove from the oven carefully (the handle will be HOT. I have learnt this the hard way!). It will deflate once removed from the oven. Spoon over the ratatouille and a scoop of fresh ricotta or Greek Yoghurt

Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille
Easy Dinner - Chickpea Dutch Baby with Gin and Blood Orange Ratatouille

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce

Sometimes, you have multiple things to celebrate in a short space of time. Like having an award winning Chocolate Beer Jam. Or having it confirm that your recipe will be included in a cookbook. Or having a birthday. And all of those things individually might require a toast…but together, they definitely do. And sometimes, you somehow are left with a half bottle of bubbles when such an occasion arises. I am a little funny about drinking bubbles after the day I open them. Even though we have an incredible re-corking stopper, it’s just something I don’t enjoy as much after the fact. And so I was left with a little champagne (in reality, sparkling wine, but I’m gonna be fancy and call it champagne) that I couldn’t bear to waste. Well, cooking with it seems like the best use!

I’d seen (and eaten) quite a few champagne cupcakes in the last few months. Seems like quite the trend in Perth at the moment! But I wanted dinner, not cupcakes!

My next thought went to my gin and crab pasta, and then to the good deal of seafood pastas with vodka sauces over the years and thought that a seafood pasta sauce was definitely the go. But, I wanted the flavour of the champagne to shine through. It’s not as strong a flavour as the gin, so I didn’t want a thick creamy sauce, so I went with a buttery base. I added some delicious Shark Bay Prawns, and some finely sliced yellow squash for a mellow, summery addition. All complimentary, but subtle flavours. And here’s the kicker. Vanilla. Adding a vanilla bean to the reducing champagne takes this from tasty to next level delicious. It adds a sweetness that you can’t quite put your finger on, but you’d immediately notice it’s absence. Trust me on this. Then you’ll probably want to open another bottle of bubbles to drink with the dish. And you might end up with a little leftover…

This is a very simple dish with very few ingredients, so it pays for them to be good quality. I recommend using fresh spaghetti if you can, and although my champagne was day old, it was still good champagne. You can use anything you would ordinarily drink. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but given the scope of sweetness and dryness you get in sparklings, make it something you enjoy drinking.

Oh, and the last note I will add is that this dish comes together really quickly once you start cooking. I’d say it’s maybe a 15 minute meal. So prep all your ingredients first, get your pasta water boiling (especially if you have dried pasta) and then begin cooking. I used salted butter as that’s what I had, so I needed less salt than you will if you use unsalted.

Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce


Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce 

1 ½ cups champagne (sparkling wine)
2 shallots, finely diced
3 small cloves garlic, minced
1 vanilla bean
125g butter, cubed.
Salt and pepper
500g fresh pasta
250g peeled prawns
4 yellow squash, very finely sliced
Chopped parsley to serve
Red chilli flakes (optional)
More champagne to drink with it!

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.

In a large sautee pan, pour in the champagne, shallots and garlic and a little pepper. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pan, then throw the pod in too. Bring to the boil over a medium heat and keep it simmering until it’s reduced by half. Add the butter, a few cubes at a time, and whisk well after each addition to blend into the sauce. Stir well for a further 1-2 minutes to thicken the sauce, then discard the vanilla pod and add the squash slices and prawns. Check for seasoning.

Put the fresh pasta into the boiling water.

Stir the prawns and squash into the sauce well, coating in the sauce and allowing to cook through. 2-3 minutes. At this point, your pasta should also be cooked, using tongs, pull the spaghetti into the sauce, allowing some (not too much) cooking water to come with it. Stir well to coat all the noodles in the sauce and blend the cooking liquid in.

Serve with some chopped parsley and some chilli flakes, if you’d like


Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce
Sparkling Meals - Prawn and Squash Spaghetti with Champagne Sauce