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.

Smoking with Broadbeans

Smoked Lamb with smashed broadbean and spiced pumpkin salad

Photos by Steve Shanahan

Apologies in advance are probably in order here, as I inflict the well worn café and restaurant mantra of fresh, local, seasonal produce, on you again to describe these dishes. This concept is not new or unique and producers from the world over have been working with seasonally available produce for ages, actually, forever.

In these recipes I also incorporate one of the most basics of preservation techniques, smoking, used to preserve the spring produce through leaner times. In this instance, this is not used to preserve, but to add flavour.  In making the most of the sweet spring produce available at this time of year and the smoking for flavour, makes for a light, spring lunch, evocative of the Mediterranean.

As in the Mediterranean, I was fortunate to produce my own backyard crop for the choicest and sweetest peas, broadbeans, mint and citrus that were ready to harvest, bang on time for a family birthday feast. 

While preparing the vegetables, I am captivated by the soft, fluffy green papoose of the broadbean pod that protects its offspring, keeping it in perfect condition. And the verdant greens of the mint, coriander and peas have not yet been yellowed off by the sun. This time of year really is the height of food perfection. 

For a low fuss feast, throw together these ingredients with some smoked new season lamb, and few embellishments are needed for a gorgeous Mediterranean inspired spring lunch.

To smoke the lamb and lemons I used a simple smoking technique using a kettle barbeque with hot coals and hickory chips available at most hardware shops. 

Smoked lamb with smashed broad bean and spiced pumpkin salad

Serves 4

800g butternut pumpkin, deseeded, peeled and diced

¼ tspn ground allspice

salt and ground pepper

3 tbsp pumpkin seeds

500g broadbeans, unpodded. If fresh broadbeans are not available use frozen.

12 lamb cutlets

100g marinated feta, crumbled

½ cup coriander leaves, finely chopped

2 tbsp lemon juice

Hickory wood chips

Olive oil spray

Paste

1 tbsp olive oil

1tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

½ tsp ground turmeric

2 tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley

¼ cup chopped coriander

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line an oven tray with baking paper and place chopped pumpkin on the tray drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with allspice, salt and pepper to taste.

Bake for thirty minutes and then scatter the pumpkin seeds over the top and bake for another five minutes or so until the seeds are roasted. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

To make the paste, heat the oil in a small saucepan over a medium to low heat. Add the cumin, ground coriander, paprika, turmeric and garlic. Cook, stirring for one minute. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, fresh, chopped coriander and parsley. Stir to combine. Smear half of the paste onto the cutlets to marinate and set the remainder aside.

Prepare the broad beans by cooking in a medium saucepan of boiling water for three minutes. Drain and refresh in cold water and drain and cool. When cooled, peel off outer shell and reserve the inner beans. Gently smash with a potato masher, still leaving a coarse texture.

Any smoker can be used to smoke the lamb cutlets. I use a simple kettle barbeque using hot coals cooked down for a few hours with the kettle lid placed on it. Spray the cutlets with a light spray of olive oil. Place the cutlets on a greased wire rack that sits over a disposable foil tray with a handful of hickory chips spread over the base. The foil tray should sit on the kettle rack in the barbeque with the hot coals underneath it. Place the lid on the preheated kettle barbeque and leave the vent slightly open. The cutlets should take about thirty minutes to cook. They will turn a dark red on the outside and just pink on the inside. For well done lamb return to the heat for about another ten minutes or cooked inside when checked for doneness.

To assemble the dish, combine the pumpkin, broad beans, fetta and coriander in a bowl with a dash of olive oil and the lemon juice. Divide among serving plates and top with the lamb cutlets and dolloped with the remaining paste.

Smoked Lemon, pea and broadbean on flatbread

Serves 4

4 Lebanese flatbreads

olive oil spray

2 tsp dried mixed herbs

2 garlic cloves, peeled

4 tbsp olive oil

800g broadbeans in shell, alternatively use frozen broadbeans

250g fresh peas in shell, alternatively use frozen peas

1/3 bunch fresh mint

2 lemons, halved

100g pecorino cheese, grated

salt and ground pepper

Smoked lemons

Preheat smoker or barbeque and place lemon halves over a grill with a smoking wood below. I generally use hickory chips. Smoke for fifteen minutes or until the lemons appear golden and caramelised. They should be softened. If you are cooking this complete meal with the smoked lamb, you can smoke the lemons at the same time as the lamb.

Broad bean and pea topping

Shell the broad beans from the outer pod and cook the beans in a pot of boiling water for two minutes. Remove the beans with a slotted spoon and reserve the water for the peas and set broad beans aside. Shell the peas and cook for two minutes in the broad bean water. Drain the peas and set aside. Shell the cooked broad beans.

In a food processor, pulse the broad beans, peas, mint half the pecorino cheese, garlic, olive oil and juice from one smoked lemon in a food processor for only a few seconds to achieve a slightly chunky mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Flatbread

Preheat oven to 200C and spray the flatbreads lightly with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle with a little salt and the herbs. Cook in the oven on a rack over an oven tray for about ten minutes or until golden and crisp but not burnt.

To assemble, break the flatbreads into shards and pile on the broad bean and pea topping, serving with extra grated pecorino, a further drizzle of olive oil and the remaining smoked lemon cut into halves again.

Vietnamese style pancakes

Vietnamese pancakes. Photo by Steve Shanahan

Cooking Asian food requires some preparation and energy to hunt and gather ingredients, but provides its own reward with simple, light and fresh flavours.

We don’t need to travel very far in Canberra to access fabulous local food markets and a plethora of Asian grocers, offering the opportunity and inspiration to recreate Asian street style delicacies. My challenge each visit is to only buy as much as I need.

When old friends from the North Coast of NSW arrive for a surprise stay we visit the Capital Region Farmer’s Market to shop for an Asian feast.

So to counter my habit of buying more than I need, I make a shopping list and take my friend along for back-up. Arriving at the market I turn my trolley upside down to find the shopping list, which I realise is languishing on my kitchen benchtop. So we shop from memory and collect a little extra just in case. I do find shopping from memory does tend to keep me a little more focused.

After escaping with only a couple of extra bags of produce, we return to prepare the feast of pork and chicken pancakes in bean sauce and sticky rice dumplings in ginger syrup. This is accompanied with a glass or two of alcoholic inspiration.

Over dinner, our visitors enthused about the quality and choice of the produce available at the market, again reminding me of Canberra’s strong relationship to it’s burgeoning and multicultural food culture.

This recipe requires some preparation time, so start early and give yourself a few hours leeway or have someone else in the kitchen to share out the tasks.

Crispy Vietnamese pancakes with bean sauce

Batter

400g rice flour

300ml coconut milk

300ml water

2 green shallots, chopped finely

vegetable oil for frying

Filling

200g pork mince

100g chicken mince

1 small onion, chopped

3 green shallots, chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp palm sugar or coconut sugar

1 chilli, deseeded and chopped

1 lime, juiced and zest

½ cup of fresh herbs, a combination of basil, coriander and mint, finely chopped

vegetable oil

1 tsp ground white pepper

200g fresh bean sprouts

Bean sauce

50g vegetable oil

100g salted soy beans, found at Asian grocers

150ml sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp dried chilli flakes

¼ cup of fresh ginger, finely chopped

¼ cup of green shallots, finely chopped

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

60g roasted peanuts

2 tbsp water

To make the pancake batter, place rice flour into a medium sized mixing bowl, add coconut milk and water and mix until smooth. Add shallots and mix together and leave to rest for half an hour.

To prepare the bean sauce, heat the oil in a medium sized frypan over medium heat. Then add the ginger and shallots and cook for one minute. Add the tamarind paste, bean paste, sweet chilli sauce, peanuts and sesame seeds and cook for five minutes, stirring to combine and prevent sticking and burning. Add the water and continue to stir for another two minutes. Remove to a bowl to cool slightly, then blend on high speed for one minute in a food processor or stick blender until smooth. Remove the blended sauce to a bowl and set aside.

For the filling, in a medium sized frypan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the pork and chicken mince and cook until golden and crumbly. Add the onion and shallots and cook for another five minutes. Then add the fish sauce, sugar, chilli, lime zest, peanuts, juice and white pepper. Continue to cook and mix for another five minutes. Taste for seasoning. Transfer the mince mixture to a medium bowl and stir through half of the chopped herbs, cover and set aside.

For the pancakes, preheat the oven to 80C. In a medium sized frypan or wok, heat three tablespoons of vegetable oil over a high heat and add a third of a cup of the batter, rotating the pan to evenly coat the the base of the pan.  When bubbles start to form cook for a further two minutes until crispy around the edges. Remove from pan with a large egg lifter and place on an oven tray. Transfer to the oven to keep warm. Repeat until all the batter is used.

To serve, place the pancakes on individual plates, top with a couple of spoons of warmed meat filling, add a spoon of chopped fresh herbs and top with a good dollop of bean sauce, some fresh bean sprouts and toasted sesame seeds.

Due to the crispiness of these pancakes they do not roll well, so eating with a fork and knife works best.

Poached salmon with lemon and egg caper sauce

Poached Salmon with lemon and egg caper sauce and freekeh tabbouleh. Photos by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 27 August 2014.

As the frozen veil slowly lifts from Canberra and we enter thaw mode, its time to ditch the meaty, one pot wonders and embrace lighter acidic flavours. Don’t get me wrong - there is a place for the meaty one-pots, but I need a rest from cheek, shank and hinds for a while …… at least until next week. So I opt for moist and succulent poached salmon.

Recently I’ve been reading up on the cultivation of capers, and I am quite captivated by these feisty little buds that grow wild on hillsides throughout the Middle East, Turkey and parts of Asia. Their pickled acidity and brinyness adds a punch to fish dishes and provides a perfect match to this salmon dish. I prefer the bottled capers in salt, rather than the ones in brine as they can tend to be mushy. These can be found in supermarkets or delis.

As it happens, I’ve been lucky enough to score a bucket of juicy, sweet lemons from my sister and some fresh chook eggs from a good friend. This generosity of produce then prompted a forage to Fishco Fyshwick for wild salmon and a pile of fishheads to make a rich, fish stock. This is a bit of extra effort, but I want the flavours to shine through. 

I prepare the fish stock the day before I need it and leave it to reduce, simmering away on the stove for a few hours to extract maximum flavour. The secret to this stock is the roasting of the fish and vegetables first. The cooking smells coming from the kitchen are absolutely sublime as I am swept away on a nut-buttery seafood drift.  If I’d had any reservations about the input needed to make the fish stock as part of this recipe, they were quickly snuffed out. The sauce in this dish only requires one cup of stock, but the extra will keep for about a month in the freezer or for a few days in the fridge. If time is short, use a good quality, store bought fish stock.

To cut through the richness of the salmon, I added a freekeh tabbouleh salad and follow it up with the French classic tarte au citron, featuring both the fresh lemons and delicious chook eggs.

The following quantities serve 6 people.

Rich Fish Stock

Makes about 8 cups

2 onions

4 celery stalks

4 carrots

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Bones and heads of 3 or 4 fish

6 whole peppercorns

1 bottle of dry white wine

4 each sprigs of parsley and thyme

1 bay leaf

salt

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Coarsely chop the onions, carrots and celery. Melt the butter in a large roasting pan and add the vegetables and fish pieces. Roast for 30 minutes.

Transfer the vegetables and fish pieces to a large stockpot and add three and half litres of water, the wine, peppercorns, herbs, bay leaf and salt to taste. Bring to a boil over a medium heat and then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for approximately two to three hours. The stock should reduce by half.

Strain the liquid and reserve and discard all of the solids.

Poached Salmon

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 stalk of celery, sliced

1 medium onion, peeled and sliced

1 lemon, sliced thinly with skin on

2 bay leaves

6 black peppercorns

2 kilogram piece of centre-cut wild salmon

sprigs of fresh dill and parsley

2 cups of dry white wine

Place carrot, celery, onion, lemon slices, bay leaves and pepper corns into a fish poacher or deep roasting pan large enough to take the fish and vegetables. Rub the salmon with salt and sit on top of the vegetables in the pan. Add the dill, parsley, wine and enough water to just cover the fish.

Place the pan over two hot plates or large burner and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until the salmon is just opaque and check for doneness to your liking by separating the flakes gently with a knife. This will take about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the salmon rest in the poaching liquid for ten minutes, then transfer to a board and peel off the skin on the underside of the fish and discard. It will come away easily. Also remove any dark flesh if you prefer.

Carefully lift the salmon onto a platter and remove any bones. Serve warm with the egg caper sauce and freekeh tabbouleh.

Egg Caper Sauce

1 ½ tbsp butter

1 ½ tbsp flour

1 cup Rich Fish Stock

½ cup of heavy cream

2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

2 tbsp salted capers, rinsed

salt and white pepper

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium to low heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring constantly to prevent burning. This should take about two minutes.

Gradually whisk in the Rich Fish Stock, then the cream. Bring to a simmer, cook for about one minute, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. The sauce will thicken a little as it cools.

Stir in the hard-boiled eggs and capers. Season to taste and keep warm over a very low heat until ready to serve over the salmon.

Freekeh Tabbouleh

5 tbsp of freekeh, washed

60g unsalted butter

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 stick of celery, finely chopped

2 pink shallots, finely chopped

½ medium white onion

1 tsp of kosher salt

½ tsp ground allspice

300g of cocktail tomatoes, finely chopped and drained of juice

3 cups of minced flat leaf parsley

½ cup of finely chopped fresh mint leaves

7 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

5 tbsp lemon juice

Place the butter in a medium saucepan and melt over a medium heat. Add the garlic, celery, shallots, stirring to cook for about five minutes. Add the washed and drained freekeh stirring to coat with the butter. Add 230 millilitres of water and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer until the freekeh is soft, this should take about ten minutes. Drain the freekeh and vegetables in a colander.

Place the cooked freekeh into a medium sized bowl and add the chopped onion, salt to taste and the allspice. Then add the tomatoes, parsley, mint, oil and lemon juice. Stir to combine and further season to taste. Serve as a side to the poached salmon.