Sumac chicken with flatbread

Picture by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times Newspaper 22 April 2015.

You suspect that you‘re on a winner when your dinner guests go unusually quiet, and the only thing that fills the conversational void is the clang of cutlery on plates.  Confirmation comes when your guests finally break their silence to ask for a second helping.

Tender chicken pieces cooked in caramelised onion and spiked with the tartness of sumac make a perfectly messy finger food when partnered with home made flatbread.  Add a salad and bingo, a complete and easy meal.  This dish can also be presented as a pulled chicken flatbread slider.

While the recipe isn’t difficult or particularly complex, all the flavour components work together seamlessly. It’s as simple as that.  

Don’t be intimidated by the quantity of sumac required in the recipe. This spice provides the unique piquancy to the dish, so distinctive in Turkish and Middle Eastern food.  Sumac can be purchased at delis or supermarkets, and sold fresh in quantity at the Nut Shoppe at Fyshwick Markets.

Flatbread

1 ½ cups plain flour, extra for rolling dough

1 tsp salt

1tsp sugar

¾ cup water, warmed

1 ½ tsp dry yeast

Chicken

1 large chicken, quartered

ground black pepper

¼ cup olive oil

½ cup ground sumac

1 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 large yellow onions, minced finely in a food processor

1 tbsp honey

1 small chilli, chopped finely

½ cup chicken stock

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup slivered or flaked almonds

Combine and mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Combine the water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, firstly mixing together lightly by hand. Allow the yeast mixture to sit for about ten minutes to develop foam on the surface. After the foam has developed, turn the stand mixer to a low speed, and slowly add the flour and salt, mixing until a dough forms and the mixture pulls together into a mass. This should take about three to four minutes.

Form the dough into a ball and cover the mixer bowl with cling wrap. Leave in a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour.

Wet your hands first before dividing the dough into two balls. Place the balls on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Cover the balls with a damp, clean tea towel and set aside for about forty-five minutes.

In a large bowl, toss the chicken quarters with half of the olive oil, 3 tbsp of the sumac, half each of the allspice and cinnamon and half of the minced onions. Add a good pinch of pepper and salt and set aside to marinate for about half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Heat a large non-stick frypan over medium high heat and add the chicken quarters, cooking until browned on both sides, about six to eight minutes. Transfer the chicken pieces to an open ovenproof dish or pan, skin side up. Pour over the chicken stock, and place in the oven for thirty to forty minutes to cook. If the chicken is browning too quickly, place some aluminium foil loosely across the top of the pan. The chicken should be tender and pulling from the bone when done. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the chicken pieces to a plate to keep warm and cover with aluminium foil. Save the pan drippings in a separate small bowl. 

Add the remaining oil to the frypan and place over a medium heat. Add the remaining onions and cook until golden brown, this should take about twenty minutes. Stir in the remaining sumac, allspice and cinnamon, also adding the chopped chilli, honey, salt and pepper to taste. Lower heat slightly and continue to cook for another few minutes, until the mixture is dark and pasty. Transfer the onion paste to a dish.

Wipe the frypan clean with paper towel and melt the butter over medium to high heat. Add the almonds and cook until golden, about three minutes.

Increase the oven temperature to 220C. Working with one dough ball at a time, on a floured benchtop, roll the dough into a thin disk, about twenty-four centimetres across. Perfect circles aren’t required, rustic shapes are the order of the day here. Transfer to an oven tray lined with baking paper. Brush the dough with the reserved pan drippings and spread half the onion paste over the dough, leaving a thin border around the edge. Repeat the process with the second ball of dough. Bake until the bread is puffed and golden, about ten minutes. To serve, cut the flatbread into wedges and place on four plates. Arrange the chicken over the flatbread, sprinkle with the almonds and drizzle with any remaining pan juices.

Serve with a parsley, tomato and onion salad adding a touch of mint and figs if in season. 

Spanish cream pie, Panchineta

Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 14 February 2014

Reliving travel experiences through food is a satisfying way to keep the memories and travel bug alive. So when our companions from a recent trip ask us to a Spanish themed lunch, I cast my mind back to our shared visit to Spain. 

Spanish desserts reflect its Islamic history, dominated by the tastes of North Africa, with almonds, honey, syrupy sugar, with fresh and dried fruits. Alongside this, there’s a strong representation of custard based sweets, often infused with the ubiquitous orange.

With orange trees planted in most home courtyards and a popular street tree, it’s little wonder that these juicy golden globes are a Spanish favourite.

The Panchineta, a traditional Basque dessert of Islamic origin, is a custard based pastry cream pie which bewitched both my tastebuds and my weight while we were in Barcelona, so it seemed only right that I revive this experience for our lunch party.

Although this dessert appears complicated, it’s very simple and elegant and can be served warm or cold.

In terms of timing, the pastry cream should be made first, preferably the day before and refrigerated overnight. The pie is best served on the day it’s made.

I tweaked the traditional and original recipe a little by adding slightly more cornflour and I baked it in a glass pie dish rather than straight onto a baking sheet. This was more to avoid the custard from running out of the pie and messing up my clean oven.

I served this with an orange ice cream made with sour cream to offset the richness of the tart.

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry, defrosted

120g ground almonds

150g castor sugar

1 tbsp butter

1 litre full cream milk

peel of 1 orange, peeled in a continuous peel

1 cinnamon stick

5 egg yolks

½ cup cornflour

200g chopped raw nuts

1 egg (extra) and 2 tbsp milk whisked together

1 tbsp raw sugar

icing sugar for dusting

Whisk together the ground almonds and the sugar in an electric mixer until they form a paste. Add the butter and continue beating about five minutes. Add the egg yolks, one by one, mixing until combined. Add the cornflour and mix well for thirty seconds.

Add a little of the milk to the mixture while mixer is off to loosen the mix, then whisk together on a low setting, adding the remainder of the milk slowly.

Pour the custard mixture into a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat, adding in the cinnamon stick and orange peel. Mix constantly with a hand whisk to keep the custard moving over the heat and to stop it sticking and forming lumps. It should cook to a thick custard consistency. Remove from the heat immediately and pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of three hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

When the custard is cooled remove from the fridge. Fish out the cinnamon stick and orange peel and discard. Prepare the pastry.

On a floured benchtop roll out the puff pastry sheets, so they are slightly larger, to fit the base and top of a greased, twenty-four centimetre round pie dish. Place the rolled base pastry sheet into the dish, pressing to fit. Trim the edges with a sharp knife leaving an extra small margin to allow for shrinkage. Paint around the edges of the pastry base with the egg and milk wash so the top pastry sheet will stick to it.

Spoon the custard evenly onto the pastry base and place the remaining pastry sheet over the custard, pushing down on the edges to stick to the bottom pastry sheet. Trim the edges of the top sheet. Using a fork, crimp down the edges of the pastry all the way around the top. Make a few slits in the top of the pastry to allow the steam to escape.

Paint the top of the pie with the remaining egg and milk wash and sprinkle the top heavily with the chopped mixed nuts and raw sugar.

Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes until golden, checking the pie does not burn.

Remove from the oven and leave to rest for half an hour before slicing. Dust liberally with icing sugar.

The Panchineta goes down well with some tart orange ice cream and a small glass of Pedro Ximenez Sherry.

Bobotie with Banana

First published Canberra Times September 18 2013. 

Photo by Steve Shanahan

Bobotie is a national food icon to South Africans, sometimes described as a South African moussaka. It is best described as a light textured meat tart, flavoured with typical Cape Malay spices and fruit, then topped with a savoury custard.

The dish first appears in a Dutch cookbook in the early 1600s, and makes its way to the Cape Colony sometime in the seventeenth century. Dutch East India Company trading ships returning from the Spice Islands to Holland via the Cape of Good Hope brought the first Malay slaves, and their spices, to be added to the mix. Dutch colonists and migrant Indians also have a hand in its development and the result is a truly multicultural experience, with just the right balance of sweet, sour and spicy.

The variations of Bobotie are pretty much endless, but generally contain the wrap-around signature spice flavours with a selection of meat, fruit and topped with an egg custard and nuts. I chose the traditional beef mince, apples, curry, bananas, almonds and coconut for my dish, a combination that improves if left in the fridge overnight and warmed up the following day.

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil

500g lean beef mince

2 red onions, finely chopped

1 tbsp curry paste

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp each, ground coriander, ground cardamom and chilli powder

salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of bread, crusts removed and softened with milk and mashed

1 tsp tomato paste

1 apple, peeled and cored, then grated

2 tbsp raisins or sultanas

2 tbsp fruit chutney

juice and zest of lemon

1 chopped garlic glove

2 bananas, sliced

200ml milk

2 large eggs

2 tbsp slivered almonds

2 tbsp shredded coconut

3 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 180C. 

Grease a twenty centimetre ovenproof pie dish. Heat the olive oil in a large frypan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onions and fry until soft. Add the curry paste and other spices, salt and pepper and fry for an additional minute. Add the beef mince, breaking up and cooking until browned.

Add the mashed bread and milk mixture, tomato paste, grated apple, raisins or sultanas, chutney, lemon zest and juice and the garlic. Fry for a few minutes until combined on a medium heat. 

Transfer the meat mixture to the greased pie dish and top with sliced banana.

Lightly beat the milk and eggs together with a fork and pour the custard mixture over the pie. Top with slivered almonds and shredded coconut and lay the bay leaves on the top.

Bake in a 200c oven for twenty five to thirty minutes. Serve with boiled rice cooked with half a teaspoon of turmeric. Bobotie can be eaten warm or at room temperature and flavours are best if eaten the following day. 

Crunchy French toast, yoghurt and rhubarb

 Photo by  Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 8 May 2013

If you’re a Mothers day breakfast-in-bed kind of family, then you could be on a winner with Mum with this easy recipe for French Toast. With some clever backstage supervision, the kids should be able to whip this one up with collateral damage such as crumbs in the sheets kept to a minimum.

While writing this, my thoughts turn to my poor Mum who, with admirable stoicism, endured a number of well meant, but horrendous breakfasts on Mothers Day.  My sisters and I, after preparing that special breakfast without Dad’s help, delivered the teetering tray to a smiling Mum, who was sitting up in bed ready and waiting. The breakfast consisted of a large bowl of cold milk, a sparse layer of rice bubbles floating indolently on the top, and lots of sugar laying in wait for the unsuspecting at the bottom. As my older sister handed the tray over, she tripped and Mum ended up with rice bubbles stuck to her eyelashes and swimming in sweet sticky milk.   

Forever scarred, I can no longer look at rice bubbles in the same way, nor any other liquid based breakfast in bed, with the mandatory, steaming hot, early morning cuppa being the total exception. My firmly held view is breakfast in bed should be toasty, fruity, not too sweet, crumbly or drippy. With this rule in mind, this crispy French Toast will work a treat for Mum; it’s low risk and with a little preparation and organisation you can have this cooked, on the brekky tray and on Mum’s lap (with the plate still under it), all within fifteen minutes.

The point of difference in this recipe is the addition of flour to the egg mixture. This increases the crispiness factor, which is perfect if you are using slices of a good sourdough or brioche loaf, as it allows the flavour of the bread to shine through.  Using day old bread also means the French toast is less likely to fall apart after soaking in the egg mixture.

I am partial to the topping of roasted rhubarb, as it’s still quite tart, without the sugar overload that’s best avoided at breakfast. Roast the rhubarb the day or evening before and leave in the fridge overnight to use the following morning. 

The leftover rhubarb can be kept in the fridge for a week and used to top porridge, muesli, ice cream or just about anything really. Top the whole dish off with a big dollop of creamy Greek yoghurt, and even some good honey to taste if you wish.

Finally, a Mums Day tip for kids and Dads; the breakfast in bed experience doesn’t finish with the breakfast on the tray. Think ahead and clean up the dirty dishes as you go. Mum will be pleasantly surprised to see that not only have you served up a delicious, gourmet brekky, but you’ve managed to leave a tidy kitchen as well.

Mum, after all that, if you still aren’t a fan of brekky in bed, well, you could always drop some heavy hints for next year. A beauty treatment or massage voucher sans crumbs, sounds awfully good to me.

Crunchy French toast

¼ cup plain flour

1 cup milk

pinch of salt

 3 eggs

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla paste

1 tbsp sugar

6 thick slices of good quality day old bread such as sourdough or brioche

Measure the flour into a wide topped and shallow mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla paste and sugar until smooth.

Heat a lightly buttered frying pan over medium heat.

Soak bread slices one by one in the egg mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until nicely golden brown.

If you want to keep the French toast warm while you are cooking the remainder of the slices, heat the oven on very low, and place the cooked French toast in the oven on an oven tray to keep warm.

When all the slices have been cooked, serve each slice with a large spoon of roasted rhubarb and a big dollop of creamy yoghurt.

If you wish, top with a drizzle of good quality honey.

 

Roasted rhubarb

2 cups of chopped rhubarb stalks, or 1 bunch of chopped stalks

¼ cup of honey

2 tbsp fresh orange juice

1 tsp orange zest

Preheat the oven to 180C and lightly grease a shallow baking dish.  Place the chopped rhubarb in the dish.

In a small jug, whisk together the honey, orange juice and orange zest. Pour the honey mixture over the rhubarb and mix until well coated.

Place the rhubarb into the preheated oven and bake until soft and tender, about fifteen to twenty minutes. When it is cooled to room temperature, place the rhubarb in the fridge until ready to use.

Porridge - Millet and spiced apple with chestnut cream and almonds

 Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 8 May 2013. 

 It may seem a little weird, but the new food trend that’s burning through the twitter-sphere at lightning pace is porridge. This surprising trend not only includes your ordinary old Quaker’s Oats, but ancient grains of all descriptions, cooked in every which way. 

It just so happens that I was born with a porridge spoon in my hand, so I’m completely comfortable with this, but some of you, perhaps those who went to boarding school, may have an aversion to this sticky, goopy substance. And that’s okay, because in the new porridge world, there’s something for everyone. 
 
As a spinoff, trendy porridge restaurants are popping up in many cities with many variations on a theme, and food vans are hawking their grains to cold, grateful punters hungrily demanding steaming bowls of congee, jook and porridge. 

Café Grød, (Grød is Danish for, you guessed it, porridge) is a hip new establishment that has opened in a trendy suburb of Copenhagen. Grød is leading the way with its informal atmosphere and all-things-porridge menu. The Danes are lapping up this cheap, organic, peasant fare, and in true Goldilocks style, porridge aficionados are rolling in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The specialty at Grød is spelt porridge with apple and toasted almonds topped with a chestnut puree.  

Open your mind to porridge and you’ll be rewarded by a huge range of grainy possibilities to inspire your creative juices, from buckwheat, rice, semolina, millet, barley, quinoa, oats, spelt, to the lesser known teff, amaranth, tapioca and all kinds of ground legumes.  Add any number of things including milk, cream, butter, water, stock, meat, coconut milk, fruit, nuts, spices, fish, sugar, honey or syrup to construct your own gourmet style creations.  

Inspired by the seasonal creamy, fresh chestnuts appearing at this time of year and with a nod to Grød, I whipped up a millet and apple porridge with chestnut cream and almonds ready to reheat for a chilly weekday morning. Pre-made jars of chestnut puree are available from delis or the Essential Ingredient for about $14, otherwise make your own. It’s a bit fiddly but not difficult.

½ cup uncooked millet

1⅓ cups water

1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and diced

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

pinch clove

maple syrup, to taste

4 tbsp toasted almonds

¼ cup chestnut puree

¼ cup pouring cream

Combine millet, water, apple and spices together in a sauce pan. Stir and bring to a boil and cover and reduce down to a simmer. Let cook for fifteen to twenty minutes until millet and apple is cooked and tender. Stir and check occasionally while cooking, adding extra water as needed if the mixture is too thick. When almost done, add a drizzle of maple syrup and taste. Start on the low end (a teaspoon or two) and continue until you’ve reached a desired sweetness.

Place the cream and chestnut puree in a small jug and mix together. Warm in the microwave.

Remove from the heat and serve with a large dollop of the warmed chestnut cream and slivers of toasted almonds.