Showing posts with label gluten free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gluten free. 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, January 3, 2016

Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg


Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg


One of my colleagues has a mini farm on her property, with chickens and ducks. I’ve been the lucky recipient of a few dozen fresh chicken eggs and when I mentioned I’d never tried duck eggs before, she brought some in for me to try. Lance stressed me out a little by asking what I was going to do with them, because I had to make something special to match the specialness of the duck eggs. The pressure was on! I didn’t know anything about duck eggs, apart from the fact that they’re bigger than chook eggs. And from ducks. I was told to expect richer, creamier eggs. A large yolk. They are fattier than chook eggs, but also have a higher protein content. They’re apparently great to bake with, and great for egg-heavy things like custards and soufflés.

 

Ok. Well, with this knowledge but still no personal understanding of what to expect, I thought the first try would be best kept simple. A nice poached egg to let the flavours shine. (Yes, I know this is technically a soft-boiled egg, but David Chang calls this version a poached egg in my Treme cookbook and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me). Making a poached egg a meal, I thought I’d make some hummus mash of sorts, flavoured with a capsicum Lance had smoked on the weekend (my house is currently filled with an array of yummy smoked things, like salmon, capsicum, cashews as Lance experiments with a new chamber smoking technique). Just some roast capsicums will suffice if you don’t have a Lance/smoking fiend around you. If you do it yourself, really char the skins so they have a little smokiness, and add a teaspoon of smoked paprika to ramp up the smoke flavour more. Instead of tahini, I thought I’d toast and blend some sunflower seeds in the mix, and subbed balsamic vinegar for acid instead of lemon juice to add an extra layer of complexity to the smoke.

 

I beefed up the whole situation with some leftover roast lamb and toasted quinoa adds heft as well as salt and texture. Sub in whatever leftover meat or even chorizo or bacon as you see fit. A bit of a green salad adds some fresh crunch and voila…a lovely meal comes together.

 

So, my verdict on the duck eggs? The taste is basically the same as chicken eggs, but with a creamier mouthfeel. If you are into your #yolkporn like I am, duck eggs will be right up your alley! The yolks blended into the hummus to make it rich, without having added all the olive oil of a normal hummus. Definitely think I’ll be adding duck eggs to the repertoire!


Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck EggExperimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
 Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg

Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg


Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg


¼ cup sunflower seeds

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 cup chicken or vegetable stock

1 smoked capsicum (or roasted capsicum if you can’t access a smoked one, with 1 tsp smoked paprika)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

 

¼ cup quinoa, rinsed and dried

1 cup diced roast lamb

1 tsp sumac

Salt and pepper to taste

 

2 duck eggs, room temperature

 

Heat a medium saucepan to low and toast the sunflower seeds for 2-3 minutes, tossing the pan here and there to stir until it smells nutty and toasty, but not browned. Pour out onto a cutting board or plate and set aside to cool. In the same saucepan, add the olive oil and garlic, and cook for 1-2 minutes or until translucent. Be careful not to burn. Add the stock and chickpeas and bring to a steady simmer.

 

Peel the skin off the smoked capsicum (much like roasting them, it should come off fairly easily), core, de-seed and roughly chop. Stir into the chickpeas and leave to simmer for 10 minutes for the flavours to fuse. Remove from the heat, add the sunflower seeds and blend the whole thing until smooth with a stick blender. Stir through the balsamic vinegar, check for seasoning and set aside with the lid on to keep warm.

 

Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Prepare a bowl of ice water. Gently lower the duck eggs into the boiling water and set a timer for 4 minutes, 30 seconds.

 

Meanwhile, heat a frypan to medium high and add the quinoa and lamb. If the lamb isn’t very fatty, you might need to add a tablespoon of oil to stop it sticking. Mix around to heat the lamb and toast. The quinoa should go a light golden colour and the edge of the lamb will crispen.

 

Pull the eggs out of the water and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking and cool enough to be able to handle. This should only take 30 seconds or so.

 
Plate the hummus, then gently peel an egg and serve on top, you can either split it to have the yolk spill out or leave it whole for the diner to do. Mix the sumac into the quinoa mix and season. Sprinkle over the top. Serve!

Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg
Experimenting with Produce - Smoked Capsicum Hummus with Toasted Lamb, Quinoa and a Poached Duck Egg



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

A few years back I was at a restaurant and full after eating a massive plate of ribs. But they brought out the dessert menu in that usual dance that has me reading the list and nothing really grabbing my eye, so I end up just getting the bill and going. Or maybe a coffee. I can be fairly selective about desserts, if there’s not something that sounds a bit different or exactly what I feel like, I usually don’t bother. Basil panna cotta. Interest officially piqued, I ordered it. A wobbly pale green mound was brought out to me, the aroma of basil evident before I’d even tasted it. The bright herb punched through the cream and sweetness, made brighter still by lime zest. It was such a fun little dessert. Ever since then, I’d had it in my mind to make some herby panna cottas. It sat on my flavour combination list and was largely ignored as I chose to make new dishes that cropped up. Until one day, it just jumped out at me. I needed to make a herb panna cotta. Only I needed it to be savoury.
This makes enough for 6 or so panna cotta, depending on how big your mould/serving dishes are, which meant I got two goes at serving it for Lance and I. The first time I served it with pulled beef and cauliflower crackers and called it Coriander Panna Cotta. The second time I served it with seed crackers and salsa and called it Guacamole pannacotta. The base for the panna cotta is the usual cream, but rounded out by avocado and Greek Yoghurt, which makes it more acceptable, nutrition-wise as a dinner option than just cream. Both ingredients adding their own special silkiness and flavour profiles to the dish. The cream portion is infused with coriander and spring onions with just enough honey to take the bite out of the yoghurt’s tang.
I’ve included both cracker recipes below as well. The seed crackers come together particularly quickly. I made them as some friends stood around one afternoon and they were done and baked before the first glass of wine was finished. They were fairly impressed! The cauliflower ones are almost as easy, but with the added step of steaming and draining the vegetable first. If you were going to make them fresh for a dinner party, the vegetable cooking portion could be done a day ahead and refrigerated. The addition of linseeds also helps to soak up some of the cauli’s excess water and bind the crackers together.

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers


Coriander Panna Cotta


500mL cream
1 bunch coriander
2 spring onions, white and tender green tips
1 tbsp honey
½ tsp pink peppercorns
½ tsp salt
½ cup greek yoghurt
2 ripe avocadoes
¼ cup water
2 tsps gelatin powder

Place 450mL cream in a small saucepan along with the coriander, spring onions, honey, salt and pink peppercorns. Gently heat until just below boiling, then take off heat, cover and set aside to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain into a clean saucepan. Place the remaining 50mL of cream in a small glass and sprinkle the gelatin powder, set aside to ‘bloom’ for 5 minutes. Reheat the infused cream to a simmer and then stir in the bloomed gelatin cream. Stir to combine and continue stirring until the gelatin dissolves, then take off the heat.
Using a blender, combine the avocadoes, yoghurt water until smooth. Blend in the cream and check for seasoning. Pour into moulds and refrigerate 24 hours or so until set.


Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers


Cauliflower Crackers

½ head cauliflower
1 tbsp linseeds/flaxseeds
1 egg
Cajun seasoning to taste (around 1/4 tsp ought to do it)
Cut the cauliflower into tiny rice-like pieces (alternatively, process to ‘rice’ in a food processor). Steam or microwave for a few minutes until tender, then set aside to cool. Place in muslin and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease an oven tray.

Mix together the cauliflower, linseeds, egg and seasoning. Mix well to combine, then press firmly into the greased oven tray. Set aside for 10 minutes, then bake for 15 minutes, or until golden on top. Cool 5 minutes, then slice.

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers

Quinoa and Seed Crackers

½ cup quinoa flakes
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tsp sesame seeds
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 egg white
Preheat oven to 130C

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Create a well in the centre and add the egg white. Gently whisk the egg, then slowly start bringing in the dry ingredients until completely combined. Dump onto a piece of baking paper. Place another piece of baking paper on top and roll out with a rolling pin until very thin – around 2mm. Gently pull the top piece off and discard.
Bake for 7-10 minutes, or until the edges start to look golden. Watch carefully. Remove from the oven, slice into desired cracker size and gently flip over. Pop back in the oven for another 5-7 minutes, or until they’re golden on the other side too. Set aside to cool, then enjoy!


Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa CrackersThree Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa CrackersThree Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa CrackersThree Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers
Three Recipes - Coriander Panna Cotta, Cauliflower Crackers, Quinoa Crackers






Monday, September 28, 2015

Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)

Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)

Last time I travelled to New York, I fell in love with plantains. Head over heels. In every guise that I ate them. I have spent the two years since mourning their absence in my life. Hopefully checking out tales of plantain sightings in Perth from the definite to the more vague. None were fruitful (ha!) Then one day a few weeks ago, I walked into The Nanna Shop, and there they were in all their (at the time) green glory. I bought some without thinking. Without concern that I’d never pay $7.99 a kilo for bananas or potatoes – but here I was paying that for plantains. I finally could relive some of the dishes I had loved whilst travelling. I started with simple tostones – twice fried plantain chips. Just as crispy and salty and delicious as I remembered! Then I did a bit of a search for more plantain recipes both online and in my Cuban and Peruvian cookbooks. I came across a Dominican recipe for plantain gnocchi with a beef short rib ragu on the Saveur website. Not much one for the price of beef ribs, I decided to use that recipe as a flavour guideline and mix it up a little to make my life much easier by switching to a slow cooked blade roast. So no removal of bones, no straining the vegetables out of the sauce, everything just cooked and eaten together. It also meant changing the plantain gnocchi with yuca flour to mashed plantains with white rice – skewing things a bit further to the Cuban style of serving. I’d love to experiment with a plantain gnocchi one day (although yuca flour is probably well out of the equation!)

The flavours here an big and punchy. The meat has a decent heat kick – feel free to add more or less cayenne depending on how hot you like things. There’s a subtle acidity from the vinegar and tomato paste, but it’s well tempered by the big beefy flavour and the creamy crème fraiche added just at the end. The plantains should be yellow, this means a slightly sweeter mash that has an almost limey brightness to it. The rice and tomato salsa are fairly standard additions, adding bulk, texture and freshness. I loved this meal. So much. The beef here then lasted for a subsequent 4 meals, including a hungover quesadilla morning for four.

And I was delighted to learn that they still had plantains on offer this weekend just gone, so I am restocked again. This time I bought enough that I might even be able to hold off until a few go black and try them that way!
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)

Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains

(barely adapted from Saveur)
2kg beef blade roast, fat layer removed and discarded
2 tbsp. rice bran oil
2 brown onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, diced
3 sweet paprika, diced (sub 1 red capsicum)
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp. cayenne
3 tbsp. tomato paste
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups beef stock
200mL crème fraiche
2 yellow plantains
White rice for serving
Tomato salsa (2 fresh tomatoes, 2 spring onions, handful of coriander and flat leaf parsley finely diced and tossed together)

Heat the base of your slow cooker to medium high and add a slick of oil. When the oil is hot, brown the blade roast on all sides, around 3 minutes per side. Remove to a plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onions, stirring here and there until translucent, around 5 minutes. Add the garlic, carrots, paprika and salt, and cook a further 10 minutes, or until the vegetables soften. Stir through the smoked paprika, pepper, basil, thyme, cayenne and tomato paste. Add the vinegar and beef stock, stirring to pick up any bits stuck to the bottom.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then place the beef back in gently. Place inside the slow-cooker, cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or until the meat is falling apart.

When the meat is ready, prepare the plantains. Without peeling, cut the plantains into cylinders around 4cm long. Place in a shallow glass bowl, add ¼ cup water cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 5 minutes, or until the plantains are soft. Remove the peel, then mash the plantains with the water remaining in the bowl. Season with a little salt.

Shred the beef with two forks, then gently stir through the crème fraiche. Serve with plain white rice, tomato salsa and mashed plantains

Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)
Plantains in Perth - Beef Ragu with Mashed Plantains (Slow Cooker Love)