Cold tofu snack

With the mercury, here in the capital, heading up past 31ºC today, it's already well past that at home in Karori, something cooling, refreshing and tasty is in order. Quick and easy is a must too, it's not too much fun being stuck in the kitchen on a stinking hot day, I mean stand in the garage because it's the only cool spot in the house kind of day. Well this scores on all points, it's super simple (slice some tofu), packs a flavor punch, and it's cooling to boot.

Silken tofu (cold from the fridge)
Togarashi*
Soy (Japanese)
Lime juice and zest

Slice the tofu and arrange artfully on a dish. Pour over the soy sauce, about 2 tablespoons, letting it pool underneath. Zest the lime over top, and squeeze the juice violently over the tofu letting some of the flesh escape and scatter across the soft pillows of soy curd. Sprinkle generously with Togarashi. Devour with abandon, chopsticks are your friend and will make you look less like a brute as you scoff it down.


* If you don't have any Togarashi you could do what I do in a pinch, zest a tangelo (or orange), toast some sesame seeds and chilli flakes and mix together.

Courgette and mint salad

One thing we are never short of in the garden is mint, we have two plants, a standard mint and a basil mint, and they just grow grow grow, you can cut them back, abuse and misuse them but they just keep growing and if kept unchecked I'm sure would take over the garden. This salad will take good advantage of a glut of mint, and add a good zing to fresh crisp courgettes, we got ours in the garden a bit late, but buds are coming so hopefully we’ll get a late crop. The salad is bright and zingy that really highlights fresh courgettes and is perfect on a hot summer's day.

4 decent sized courgettes
Handful of mint leaves and tips
1 Lemon
Olive oil
Chilli flakes
1 Garlic clove
Flaky Sea salt (or kosher)

• Get a griddle pan on a high heat.
• Slice the courgettes as thin as you can, or use a mandolin (I used the second thinnest setting).
• Griddle the slices on one side until charred.
• Arranged cooked slices on a board in a single layer, don’t stack them or they will steam.
• As they are cooling sprinkled with salt.
• (Optional) Slice the lemon in half and griddle until caramelised.
• In a large bowl squeeze in the juice from the lemon and add olive oil, I like a 2 parts oil to 1 part juice but do it to your own taste.
• Finely mash or grate the clove of garlic into the bowl, and add chilli flakes to taste.
• Take the larger mint leaves and thinly slice and add to the bowl.
• Toss the courgettes through the dressing, use your hands, taste and adjust the seasoning.
• Let it rest 10 minutes or so before plating up.
• Arrange on a plate and sprinkle over the mint tips.

What a break!

Alfie in the Sounds looking like a salty sea dog


Lacquered Roast Chicken

I hope everyone has had a good long summer break, I managed to snag myself 7 weeks off this summer, the longest break I've ever had, it has been great spending so much time with the little sprog. My twitter, Instagram and blog have been a little quiet during this time, mainly because I haven't had much time at home in my kitchen, I got to spend a few days in the sounds and Alfie got his first fishing trip, which he promptly fell asleep during. As per usual over the festive days, I ate too much and probably imbibed a few too many and then back at home everything has been light and easy.


Jap Chae


Chicken adobo

A few highlights over the weeks were butterflied leg of lamb, heavily seasoned with garlic and rosemary, barbecued hot and fast with a good rosemary smoke, great Xmas lunch. Getting a copy of 101 Easy Asian Recipes by the good people at Lucky Peach, it’s pantry section made the stock up trip to the local Asian markets a little less confusing, I've been slowly working my way through the book and have a few favourites already and list of what to try next, managed Chineasy Cucumber salad, very awesome, Chicken Adobo, crazy amount of soy and surprisingly very tasty, Jap Chae, far far tastier than the recipe reads, Korean grilled chicken, and Scallion salad. Have also discovered a new favourite snack, silken tofu, lime juice, soy and togarashi, simple and delicious, especially on a hot summer day.


Chineasy cucumber salad


Scallion salad

Well time seems to fly, the seven weeks are almost up, best laid DIY plans didn't quite come to fruition, well I made a coat rack, woo. Alfie is far more mobile than ever and I spend most of my time chasing after him, he managed a flight of stairs! So one week left and back to work, not even sure if I remember what that is at this stage.


Korean grilled chicken


Silken tofu snack

I managed a whole half day at work and ended up in hospital, I seem to have all the luck, I’m out now, a nasty case of gastritis, which means I am yet again on a ruddy restricted diet, avoid spicy, crap, no coffee on an empty stomach, how am I meant to function! Oh well, time to look for the silver lining. At least I’m back at work, happy and healthy, and I had an unplanned extended break even if some of it was at the pleasure of the local DHB.

Time to see what 2016 has in store and dive back head first into some kitchen creations. 

Sopressa puttanesca

This is one of those get it all into the pot and let it see to itself for a couple of hours, fats and oils mingling together, textures softening, flavours intensifying. When you’ve finally had enough torture and can’t hack the mouth watering aromas filling the house, you just need to give a final adjustment to the seasoning, get it off the heat and devour, spaghetti is fine if you can’t be bothered with the gnocchi, but the fluffy pillows of potato really do lend themselves well to this sauce.

Sopressa puttanesca
Olive oil
Olives, stoned
Chilli flakes, to taste
Garlic, diced
Capers, rinsed
Sopressa, grated!
Capsicum, diced
Red onion, diced
Tomatoes, 1 can
Cider vinegar

• Get a generous glug of olive oil in a heavy pan over a medium heat, add a bit more, put in the grated sopressa and gently let it come up to temperature and release it’s oils.
• When it’s all sizzling away add in the garlic, onion and capsicum, cook until translucent.
• Splash in a little vinegar, and cook out.
• Add the chilli, capers, olives and tomatoes, cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for a hour or two.
• Adjust the seasoning, salt, chilli, vinegar, and let cook out for a few more minutes before double checking.

Gnocchi
60g potato flakes (1 cup)
300 ml water
1 egg
4 g salt

• Mix well, transfer to ziplock bag and let rest for at least half an hour.
• Get a large pot of salted water on to boil.
• Nip of the corner of the bag and use scissors or a knife to cut of portions as you pipe into the water.
• Cook until floating on the surface and transfer to an ice bath.

Getting it all together

• When ready to serve, get a sauté pan on a medium heat with a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter.
• Sauté the gnocchi until beginning to crisp, ladle in some sauce and toss through, repeat until enough sauce is added.
• Serve in bowls with a generous grating of hard cheese.

Salt baked swede

Swedes, rutabaga, or whatever you choose to call them, I'm guessing you fall into one of two categories, love them or hate them. Much like the often maligned brussels sprouts there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground or indifference to them, you’re either excited to have them on your plate or someone will of offended you greatly. Unlike the sprout, which on inspection you have reasonably good idea of what flavour it’s going to be, it looks like a mini cabbage and is probably going to taste a bit like one too, the swede however is a root vegetable carefully hiding its true flavours, which is pretty pronounced cabbage, so yay for Brassica lovers.

It’s a pretty versatile vegetable, it works well raw, grated with some garlic hot aioli as a remoulade, sliced thin and stir fried, baked in fat with a roast, steamed or as below baked in salt to really intensify the flavour, sliced into wedges and served with some peppery hot olive oil.


Salt crusts are reasonably straight forward, dump a lot of salt into a bowl and crack in a couple of egg whites, mix together to make a wettish sandy mixture. Make a layer in the bottom of the roasting dish, nestle in the peeled swedes and firmly pack with salt making sure there are no gaps. Bake at 170ºC for about an hour, a little longer won't hurt. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes or so. With the back of a knife, crack the crust open like an egg and gently wrestle the swedes free.

Potato croquettes

4 Large potatoes
2 Slices of bacon
Parsley, finely chopped
Dijon mustard
Cayenne pepper
red onion, finely diced
Parmesan cheese, grated
Edam cheese, grated
1 egg
salt
pepper

Coating
Bread crumbs
1 egg
flour

Dressing
Dried Morita Chilli vinegar
Mayonnaise
Garlic, crushed

Oil for frying
I use a mix of rice bran (or canola/rapeseed) and olive

Dried Morita Chilli vinegar
Blitz dried Morita Chilli (chipotle) with cider vinegar, store in an airtight container. Makes for a hot addition to dressings, or adding a bit of zing to dish.

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First things first, get the dressing made, mix the chilli vinegar and garlic with the mayonnaise to taste, place in a container and keep in the fridge until ready, the longer you leave it the more the flavour will develop and the raw edge of the garlic will mellow.

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Prick holes all over the potatoes and bake for about an hour, or until tender all the way through. Leave to cool on a board.

While waiting for the potatoes too cool, place the bacon on a tray and in the oven, you don’t want to cook it crispy, just enough to get the fat rendering and take the raw edge off. When cooked, finely dice.

Carefully peel the skin off the potatoes and pass through a fine mouli, or thoroughly mash if you don’t have a mouli or potato ricer.

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl, taste and adjust the seasoning, salt, pepper, mustard etc.

Take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and roll into balls, arrange on a tray, having slightly damp hands helps. Cool in the fridge for about an hour.


Get a breading station ready, one bowl with seasoned flour, one with beaten egg and the final with breadcrumbs, I suggest using bog standard crumbs, not panko.

Dip each potato ball in the flour then egg then breadcrumbs, be gentle as they are a little fragile, place back on the tray and refrigerate for at least half an hour, this helps the coating stick.

In a heavy based pan heat a couple of inches of oil to 180–190ºC. Set up a rack near the pan to transfer cooked croquettes to.

In batches carefully place the balls into the hot oil and cook for a minute or two, don’t over cook otherwise molten cheese will erupt into the oil. Transfer cooked balls to the rack.

Serve up with the mayonnaise sauce to dip into and an ice cold beer.

Cheat sheet

I keep a list of handy measurements and ratios in the front of my kitchen notebook, a cheat sheet of sorts, I probably know them all by heart but it is a handy reference to keep. So I thought I'd start keeping them online, I'll add to this as things pop up, and there will be a link at the top of the page next to the recipe index. I'll also try to put an example recipe link to each item.


Bread (recipe)
1,000 g flour
600 g Water
10 g Salt
10 g Yeast

No more than 5% fat if adding.

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Quiche custard (recipe)
2 eggs per 250ml of milk

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Roux (recipe)
1 part flour
≥1 part fat

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Pasta dough (recipe)
(by weight)
3 parts flour
2 parts egg

Roughly 2 eggs per 180–200g

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Semolina pasta dough (cavatelli, orecchiette etc) (recipe)
1 part flour
1 part semolina flour
1 part salted water*

* 5% salt by weight, for example 170 g water and 10 g salt, 180 g flour, 180g semolina.

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Hand pulled noodle dough (recipe)
5 parts flour
3 parts water
1 % salt

Form dough, rest 15 minutes; knead 15 minutes (roll into log, fold in half repeat); rest 60 minutes; Shape cut, oil.

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Alkaline noodle dough (ramen) (recipe)
2 parts flour
1 part water
2% Baked soda (baking soda cooked at 120ºC for an hour)

Knead 5 min; rest 20 min; knead 5 min; wrap and refrigerate 1 hour; run through pasta machine.

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Rough puff pastry (recipe)
1 part flour
1 part butter
0.5% salt
Milk to bind

Blitz half the flour with butter; add remaining flour and salt; add splash of milk, for dough ball; wrap and refrigerate; roll, fold into thirds and repeat 3–4 times, placing in fridge to cool down now and then.

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Hot fat pastry (recipe)
5 parts flour
2 parts water
2 parts fat (lard or dripping)
0.5% salt

Heat water gently with fat in it; mix with dry, form dough ball; wrap and let rest 60 minutes; roll and fold in thirds, repeat until smooth.

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Short pastry (recipe)
2 parts flour
1 part butter
0.5% salt
water

Kefta mkaouara (tagine)

I never need an excuse to fire up the tagine, it’s a great cooking vessel and it’s always nice to come across new recipes to try rather than getting stuck in a rut. This recipe is based on a Rick Stein one which stuck in my mind from one of his various television shows, so this may not be his exact recipe, but how I remembered it and adjusted for my tastes.

500g Lamb or beef mince
Cumin, ground
Paprika, hot smoked
Chilli, flakes
Parsley, finely chopped
Salt
1 Egg, per portion
Tomatoes, 1–2 cans
Garlic, 3–4 cloves sliced
Onion, diced

In a bowl, combine the mince, a couple spoons of cumin and paprika, add chilli to your taste, salt and a handful of parsley. Mix together, but don’t overwork the meat. Use a tablespoon to scoop even portions of meat and roll into balls. Set aside.

Heat the tagine over a medium heat, when up to temperature add a good glug of olive oil and start browning the meatballs. When lovely and brown all over, spoon into a bowl and set aside.


Add the onion and garlic to the tagine and sauté until translucent. Add a spoon or two of cumin, paprika, salt and chilli to taste. Gently cook the spices out. Add the meatballs back to the tagine and stir. Pour in the can of tomatoes, and add some liquid if needed, you want the liquid to cover at least half the meat ball. Place the lid on and cook for 5–10 minutes.

Taste and season. Make little wells where you want to place the eggs and crack them in. Place the lid back on and cook for about 5 minutes, depends on the size of your eggs.


Serve with some good flat bread and strained yoghurt.

Greens and Brisket

I guess I have never really jumped on the kale bandwagon, I’m no vegetable hater, I just never saw the appeal, so it’s purchased pretty infrequently, but this latest side dish I whipped up has changed my view on it, the hearty texture and flavour stand up well against this spicy garlicky tomato braise.

Braised Kale
Kale, woody stems removed, roughly torn
Garlic, sliced thinly
Chilli flakes
Red onion, finely diced
Tomatoes, a good quality tin
Chicken stock
Salt
Olive oil

• Sauté garlic, chilli flakes and onion in olive oil until translucent.
• Add kale, stir through until beginning to wilt.
• Pour in a splash of stock and, then add the tomatoes.
• Cover and cook on low for 20–30 minutes.
• Taste and season.

Brisket


Dry Rub
Garlic powder
Cumin
All spice
Chilli
Cayenne
Paprika
Coffee
Coriander
Salt

• Grind all together.
• Coat Brisket in dry rub and let rest for a couple of hours to overnight.

• Preheat oven to 200ºC .
• In a large oven dish with lid, put in a layer of onion chopped in wedges, place the brisket on top. Cook uncovered in the oven for an hour.
• Lower the oven to 170ºC.
• Remove from oven and pour in a cup of hot chicken stock, place lid on and put back in the oven for 2–3 hours depending on the size of your brisket.
• Rest for 20–30 minutes with the lid on, remove and slice.

Serve up with a good portion of greens, and cooking liquid from the brisket. Grits, buttermilk semolina, polenta, kumara (sweet potato) purée all make excellent sides too.

Baking soda spuds

It’s a hard road finding the perfect roast spud, but this method works pretty well, there are a few steps, but you can prepare ahead of time and whack them in the oven when ready. The three main steps are, boiling, cooling (refrigerating), roasting.


Water
1% (of water) Baking soda
2% (of water) Salt
Small roasting potatoes, peeled

• Add all to a pot and bring to a simmer, cook for 15–20 minutes, or until well cooked but not falling apart, the baking soda in the water will form a skin on the potatoes enabling them to be cooked for longer than normal.
• Remove the potatoes to a rack and let cool to room temperature.
• Place the rack, uncovered in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Place the potatoes in a pan with oil and put into a hot oven, roast until crispy and golden brown all over.
• Devour.

Adapted from Ideas in Food