The Food Collective Christmas Feast 2014

Pictures by Steve Shanahan

First Published Canberra Times 3rd December, 2014.

With Christmas closing in and plans for the annual family inundation afoot, the menu of the day requires some forward planning. As my job requires a lot of stove time, my aim is to reduce food preparation input on the day so I can spend it with family and friends. Our Christmas main meal will be a late seafood lunch spiked with fresh, citrus flavours, with just a hint of Tetsuya and Spirit House. And for fun, we will celebrate with some retro flavour combinations of prawns, coconut and pineapple. Just to prove we are the height of absolute sophistication, you won’t see a Golden Circle pineapple ring within cooee.

The dressings in this meal give it a good kick along, highlighting the seafood flavours that are a foil for the piquancy of the pretty pickled salad. The bulk of the preparation is in the dressings and salad, so be prepared to put the effort in the day before so you don’t spend Christmas day stuck in the kitchen. Then on the day, grab another willing set of hands to help you pull it together. The complete menu serves 4 to 6 people. It’s not en exact science, so just increase the quantities of everything to feed greater numbers.

Suppliers assured me that the listed foods would be in plentiful supply over the holidays. The seafood was purchased from FishCo Fish Market at Fyshwick and the Foie Gras from The Essential Ingredient in Kingston. The Yuzu and shredded Nori can be purchased from most Asian grocers and the Seafood Salad can be bought frozen from JJ’s Fysh at Fyshwick Markets. Keep any unused portions of seafood salad, which is essentially seaweed, in the freezer and this can be added to other meals, including soups, salads or with cold meats. 

Hint: To avoid mixing up the dressings, print the name of the dressing on some masking tape and stick it to the lid of the jar or container. This helps when it comes to putting the meal together.

Pretty Pickled Salad

½ cup rice vinegar

¾ cup sugar

½ cup water

1 tsp salt

1 cup each of shredded carrot, shredded white radish (Daikon), shredded cucumber, thinly sliced small red onion

2 tbsp grated ginger

1 cup bean sprouts

4 kaffir lime leaves, centre rib removed and finely shredded

½ cup coriander, chopped

½ cup mint leaves, chopped

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Salad Dressing

2 tbsp plum sauce

2 tsp sugar

pinch of salt

2 tbsp warm water

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tsp sesame oil

On the day before:

Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. When the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and cool.

In a bowl, mix together the carrot, radish, cucumber, onion and ginger. Pour over the cooled syrup, cover with glad wrap and allow to pickle overnight. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. This will send off some fermenting vegetable smells, this is normal.

To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a bowl or jar and shake to combine. This can be left out of the refrigerator until ready to use.

When ready to serve:

Drain the pickled vegetables from the liquid and discard. Allow the vegetables to drain in a colander until there is little liquid remaining. Transfer to a bowl along with the bean sprouts, kaffir lime leaves, coriander and mint. Pour over the dressing and mix to combine, transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Scallops with Strawberries and Yuzu Juice

12 scallops, without roe or shells

1/4 punnet of ripe strawberries, finely chopped

handful of chives cut into 4 cm lengths

handful of tarragon, chopped

Dressing

5 large strawberries, crushed with a potato masher

2 tbsp yuzu juice, or lemon juice

½ tsp sugar

salt and pepper to taste

On the day before:

Combine all the dressing ingredients in a small jar and refrigerate until you are ready to dress the scallops.

When ready to serve:

Bring a small saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Plunge the scallops into the boiling water, leave to cook for fifteen seconds, then remove. The flesh should be only just turning white. Slice the scallops in half and lay overlapping on a platter. Drizzle the vinaigrette and scatter the chopped strawberries, tarragon and chives over the arranged scallops. The acid in the lemon will further “cook” the scallops.

Crispy Prawns with Garlic and Pineapple Salsa

700g of large green prawns, peeled and deveined

5 tbsp rice flour

3 cups of vegetable oil for deep frying

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

handful of coriander, chopped

lime wedges

Pineapple Salsa

½ a fresh pineapple, peeled, quartered and core removed

3 fresh chillis, sliced finely

1 tablespoon of dessicated coconut

handful of both fresh mint and coriander, chopped finely

salt and pepper to taste

On the day before:

For the pineapple salsa, chop the pineapple finely and combine with the remainder of the salsa ingredients. Leave in refrigerator to marinate until required.

When ready to serve:

Toss the prawns with the rice flour. Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan till very hot. Fry the garlic until browned and remove with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towel. Fry the prawns in batches until golden and crispy, this should only take a minute or so. Drain on paper towel and transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with the coriander and garlic. Serve with the lime wedges.

Roasted Balmain Bugs with Smoky Tea

10 Balmain Bugs, cooked

1 tsp of Lapsang Souchong black tea

1 cup of defrosted seafood salad.

1 leek, julienned

1 cup of vegetable oil

Shredded nori

Dressing

1 tbsp macadamia oil (or other flavoured nut oil)

½ tsp sherry vinegar

Preheat the oven to 260C.

The day before:

Combine the sherry vinegar and macadamia oil in a small jar and leave to infuse.

For the leeks, heat the oil till very hot and fry the leek in batches until browned and crispy. Remove and drain on paper towel. Keep in an airtight container until ready to use.

When ready to serve:

Chop the heads off the bugs and cut them in half, lengthwise with a chopper or a pair of strong kitchen shears. Remove the heads and discard. Season the bugs with salt and pepper to taste. Grind the tea to a powder in a mortar and pestle and sprinkle on the flesh side of the bugs.

Place the bugs, still in half shells, on an oven tray and place in the oven for about three minutes till just feeling warm on the outside.

To serve, place the seafood salad on a serving platter. Place the bug halves on top and pile up in the centre.

Drizzle with the dressing and arrange the leeks and shredded nori on the top.

Duck Foie Gras with Black Rice and Avocado

4 to 6 duck foie gras, approximately 30g each

1 tbsp mirin

1 cup cooked black or red rice

¼ avocado, finely diced

Avocado Puree

½ avocado, peeled

100ml milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp finely chopped chives

Dressing

1 tsp honey

50ml soy sauce

1 tsp lemon juice

Garnish

2 tbsp toasted and crushed sesame seeds

small bunch of chives, cut into 4 cm lengths

On the day before:

To make the avocado puree, blend all the ingredients until pureed in a food processor or blender. Store in a jar in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a small jar and shake. Store out of the refrigerator until ready to use.

Toast the sesame seeds in a small frypan until golden. Crush the roasted seeds in a mortar and pestle until fine and crumbly. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

In a small bowl, mix the pre-made rice with the mirin and cover with glad wrap and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

When ready to serve

Place four (or six) spoonfuls of rice separately piled on a large serving platter. Place a spoonful of chopped avocado on top of each spoon of rice. Spoon a little avocado puree over the top of each. Then top with a round of foie gras. Spoon a teaspoon or two of dressing over the foie gras and top with a good sprinkle of crushed sesame seeds and chives.

Caneles - Bordelaise beauties

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 4 June 2014.

Despite their size, these little pastries are surrounded by much tradition, myth and misconception. This mystery not only relates to their provenance but the mistaken believe that these are difficult to make and great patisserie skills are needed to produce a perfect pastry confection.  Seriously, if you can cook pancakes, you can cook Caneles.

As far as their provenance goes, holding Google up as your reference source, they hail from somewhere in France, particularly around the Bordeaux region.  Although, this information is highly dependent on which page of research you stumble upon. However, if you are wandering around the Bordeaux area of France, you cannot miss the plentiful supply of these cakes sold everywhere.

The other controversy surrounding the Canele, is which cooking receptacle provides the best result. Canele traditionalists, and there is such a group,  claim the little French copper moulds produce perfection, and I would agree with this. If you are going to go to the trouble of sourcing and using the copper Canele moulds, then you would probably go to the extent of coating each mould with organic edible beeswax prior to baking. I agree this sounds a bit extreme, but it is fully traditional and gives the Canele its crispy exterior.

However, the much more economically priced silicone moulds still produce an excellent Canele with the mandatory crispy exterior and molten interior without the need to use beeswax or copper. The Canele moulds are easily purchased on Ebay or Amazon for well under fifteen aussie dollars. The result is a little more rustic, but not discernibly different.

If you plug “Canele” into Google, you will see there is a significant amount of discourse about the difficulties of making these pastries and they are the subject of numerous blogs that wax lyrical about methods and equipment.  I have made these gorgeous little cakes a number of times and haven’t experienced any failures using the silicone moulds and the following recipe.

Caneles are delicious warm or cold and keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge. They are usually quickly eaten, but if you have any left, they can be warmed for ten seconds in the microwave oven to freshen up.

They can be eaten warm or cool, and keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge. My favourite is warm, where the outside is crispy and the inside is soft and a little molten.

This mixture produces about 20 Caneles and the mixture should be left at least 24 hours in the fridge before baking.  If baking for kids, leave out the rum in the recipe below.

2 cups whole milk

30g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla paste

100g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp sea salt

180g sugar

3 eggs

80 ml good quality rum

Combine the milk, butter and vanilla in a medium saucepan, and bring to a simmer. In the meantime, combine the sifted flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat gently without incorporating any air. When the milk mixture stars to simmer, remove from the heat and set it aside.

Pour the eggs all at once into the flour, then immediately after, also pour the milk mixture into the flour, stirring until well combined  with a wooden spoon or spatula. Do not whisk as you do not want to incorporate air. Add the rum and stir. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least twenty-four hours or up to three days. The longer this mixture is left the better the flavour.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to a very hot 250C. Lightly grease the  canele moulds with melted butter. Remove the batter from the fridge and stir to incorporate the liquids that may have separated. Do not whisk.

If using a silicon mould, place the mould onto an oven tray for ease of handling. Fill each mould almost to the top with the batter and put into the oven to bake for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, reduce the temperature to 200C and place a piece of silicon baking paper on top of the Caneles to stop them from burning.  Bake for a further twenty minutes. The tops of the Caneles should be a dark golden colour.

Remove from the oven and leave for about fifteen minutes before unmoulding the Caneles onto a cooling rack. They should drop out easily from their moulds and as they cool further, and will collapse only very slightly.

Pork choc ribs

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 15 January 2014

The heat is on, so fire up the barbeque, get the picnic rug out and throw those ribs on the grill. We’ve had a fairly abstemious Christmas this year, in terms of our chocolate indulgence, so in order to keep the levels up, I turn to rubbing my meat in it. 

This newfound fascination I have for pork and chocolate really is very seductive and moreish, and the two make a heavenly match. The preparation is a touchy feely process of rubbing the spice mixture in, so be prepared to get down and dirty with your ribs.

I’m fascinated by the Mexican mole influence of bitter chocolate used in savoury dishes. With the addition of some basic cupboard spices, the ribs turn from mediocre, to tender, melt in the mouth perfection.

After trying a number of different chocolate and spice marinade combinations, I settle on vanilla, spice and a hint of chilli.

If you are a real chocoholic and you want the big flavour, try marinating your ribs in the chocolate rub for 48 hours in the refrigerator. I used Rich Dark Pure Dutch Cocoa that can be bought from Essential Ingredient.

2 racks of pork ribs

1/3 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder

½ cup brown sugar (lightly packed)

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tbsp sea salt

1 clove garlic chopped finely

1 tbsp mustard powder

2 tsp ginger powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp vanilla paste

Mix all of the ingredients except the ribs together in a bowl. With clean hands rub the ribs generously with the spice mixture. If you prefer you can add a little olive oil to the mix to make it stick to the ribs. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least overnight.

Remove the ribs from the refrigerator about an hour prior to cooking, this will allow them to cook quicker and reduce burning the outside.

Using a hooded barbeque, place ribs over a medium heat grill plate, close hood and roast for about thirty minutes. Open lid and increase temperature of barbeque and roast for about another ten minutes. Watch that they don’t burn. Remove ribs from heat and leave to rest for ten minutes.

If cooking the ribs in an oven, preheat the oven to 180C and place ribs in a shallow baking pan, cooking for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven. Increase the oven temperature to 200C and return ribs to a wire rack over a baking tray. Bake for an additional ten minutes or until the ribs are browned. To serve, cut ribs into individual bones and serve with a salad.

Christmas spice cake in a jar

Photo by Steve Shanahan

This version of a pre-packaged cake mix is a great Christmas gift. It is easy to assemble and is a practical and helpful gift to give to busy people. The only additions needed to complete the cake mix are the wet ingredients.

To assemble the cake mix in the jar, use a medium sized jar that has been sterilised, by boiling in a saucepan of water for fifteen minutes. The jar should have an airtight seal to keep the cake ingredients fresh. The ingredients you will need are below.

2 cups self raising flour

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground Dutch cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp grated nutmeg

½ cup dutch cocoa

pinch of salt

Measure and sift the flour and salt and then in a separate bowl, measure and sift the cocoa and spices together.

Starting with the sugar, layer the ingredients according to their density with the heaviest at the bottom.

Press down on the ingredients as you layer them, so they remain in their layers for presentation. As you place each layer in the jar, brush down the sides with a dry pastry brush.

Then add the sifted flour in its layer topping with the cocoa and spices.

Give the sides of the jar a final brush down, then seal and decorate the jar with a label and ribbon.

To provide the method to make the cake, I printed the instructions below on a piece of thick paper and rolled it up in a scroll and tied it onto the lid with the ribbon.

Avoid shaking the jar to keep the ingredients in their layers.

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Christmas Spice Loaf  

All dry ingredients have been prepared in correct quantities for you to easily prepare the Christmas Spice loaf. You will only need a bowl and a wooden spoon to mix the cake. The ingredients contain no artificial colours or preservatives and the only extra ingredients you will need to make the cake are

·       ⅓ cup golden syrup

·       1 cup of milk and

·       1 cup of water.

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 23 centimetre x 10 centimetre loaf tin. Dump the entire jar of cake mixture ingredients into a large mixing bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Add the milk, water and golden syrup and mix to a smooth paste. The mixture should fall in a ribbon from the spoon. Pour the mixture into the greased loaf tin, and slam on the bench top to remove bubbles.  Reduce oven temperature to 150C and bake for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. Insert a skewer to come out clean to check if it is cooked.

This cake keeps best in an airtight container for about one week and gets better with age.