Wok the Fuck?!

Pan Fried Salmon w/ Udon Noodles in a Dashi Broth.

2009-01-16T08:37:00.003+10:00

We used to eat salmon loads on weeknights, such a good easy, quick and healthy meal. Pulled these recipes from Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, and like every recipe I've tried from the book, t'is a winner.

Serves 2.

Ingredients for Salmon:
2 x Salmon Fillets
Vege oil
Tbsp Butter
Tbsp Rice Vinegar
Tbsp Mirin
1/2 Tbsp Dark Soy
1/2 Cup chopped Shallots

Ingredients for Dashi Broth:
2 tsp dashi powder
1 tsp light soy
1 1/2 tsp dark soy
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp mirin
Udon Noodles

Salt the Salmon generously on both sides and set aside for 1/2 hour.

Make the Dashi Broth by adding all ingredients except the npoodles in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then keep warm. Cook Udon noodles as per directions on packet.

Fry on both sides till done on a high heat using the oil. Tip out oil when done. Let pan cool a little so the butter wont burn immediately. Add butter in about 3 pieces and spoon over salmon. Remove Salmon, set aside and keep warm.

Add all other liquids to pan and cook 1 minute. Add shallots, mix and then plate, spooning sauce over salmon. I served with a side of steamed sugar snap peas.

Thai Beef Salad w/ Green Mango.

2008-11-15T07:57:00.008+10:00

This is a salad that we eat all the time, it’s quite an economical way to make a steak go between two people. We usually don’t have it with the green mango (which you can usually pick up from your local Asian grocer) but it was there and I thought it would make a nice addition. One interesting thing about this salad is the addition of the ground roasted rice, which coats the salad, makes the dressing stick to it and adds a lovely textural crunch to it as well as a slight smoky flavour, you can make it without, but it’s definitely worth a try at least once. In this case, we were using lettuce and herbs from the garden and as our mint plant isn’t quite big enough yet, we didn’t use as much mint as usual.

Ingredients:

1 x large steak (we generally use rump)

1 x lettuce

1 x bunch of coriander

1 x big handful of mint

½ red onion

About 8-10 kaffir lime leaves

Chilis to taste, we used about 5 hot ones.

1 x green mango

About a tablespoon plus of rice – uncooked.

Dressing:

1 lime

Equal amount of Fish Sauce to Lime Juice

Big pinch of brown sugar

Ok, first up, assemble your salad, so clean and separate the leaves of the lettuce, pluck the leaves off the mint and coriander, thinly slice the onion, peel and slice the mango, chop the chillis and shred the kaffir lime leaves, reserving the spine of the leaves (best way to shred kaffir lime leaves is to roll them lengthways and cut them with scissors) – then toss all of the above in a large bowl and set aside. Reserve with a little chilli and mango for garnishing.

Make the roasted rice by getting the uncooked rice, placing that in a small frypan on medium heat with the spines of the kaffir limes (for a little bit more fragrance) and toasting until they are lightly brown, keep moving the rice around the pan or it will burn. You will know when it’s done when all of the rice goes chalky and then starts to go brown, make sure you cook it all the way through or you’ll get hard lumps all through the salad, which you definitely don’t want. Tip into a mortar & pestle or spice grinder, remove the kaffir lime leaves and pound/blitz to a fine powder.

Make the dressing by adding all the ingredients in a jar and shaking till combined.

Season your steak and cook it however you like it. We go medium rare. Make sure you rest it and then slice into thin strips. Mix in all of the meat except a little to reserve for garnishing. Pour remaining steak juices from the chopping board into the dressing jar and shake again.

Assemble your salad, toss in the ground roasted rice, toss to combine, pour over the dressing, drop the rest of the meat, mango and chilli on top and serve!

Pizza: Potato Pizza & Bacon, Mushroom and Pineapple Pizza.

2008-10-23T08:46:00.005+10:00

For us, pizza is a pretty common mid-week meal. It takes about an hour to make from start to finish, but 45 minutes of that is waiting for the dough to be made in the breadmaker, so really it's about 10-15 minutes work - even less if you have prebought bases, but they're nowhere near as good. We roll out the pizzas on the bench and then dust with semolina before placing them on baking paper to assemble the pizzas. Once assembled we transfer to a heated pizza stone and slide the baking paper out by sliding a knife between it and the base while pulling on the paper.

Potato Pizza

1/2 quantity of pizza dough (recipe to come)
Semolina for dusting

2 desiree (purple skinned) potatoes
1/2 sliced red onion
Fresh Rosemary
Sea Salt
Olive oil
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella or Bocconcini

Preheat oven as hot as it will go.

If you have a mandolin (slicer) slice the potatoes with it at about 2mm thick and then boil for about 2 minutes and dry on paper towels. If you don't have a mandolin, boil them whole till just done, then slice them as thin as possible afterwards. Put potato slices into a bowl and add all the other ingredients except for the Mozzarella/Bocconcini and toss to combine. Arrange on the the pizza base (which you've rolled out and dusted with semolina) and top with Mozzarella and an extra drizzle of olive oil. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes till cheese is browned, but remove before crust burns. Some mushrooms or bacon also work pretty well with this pizza.

Bacon, Mushroom and Pineapple Pizza.

1/2 quantity of pizza dough (recipe to come)
Semolina for dusting

3 tbsp Tomato Sauce (see recipe)
Bacon
Sliced Mushrooms
1/2 sliced red onion
some tinned pineapple
Parmesan Cheese
Mozzarella or Bocconcini

Preheat oven as hot as it will go.

Apply tomato sauce to pizza base with the back of a spoon, then layer the pizza in the order of the ingredients listed. Place in oven for about 15 minutes till done.

Enjoy!

Mushroom Tortellini with Burnt Butter, Sage and Proscuitto Sauce.

2008-10-21T08:45:00.001+10:00

Pasta

400g all purpose flour

4 eggs

pinch of salt

Extra flour for dusting

Stuffing

300g mixed mushrooms

1 medium brown onion

Some butter + olive oil

Parsley and Thyme

Salt and Pepper

Splash of wine

250g Ricotta

Handful of Parmesan

Sauce

75g Butter

70g Proscuitto

Extra Mushrooms

Small Bunch of Sage

Splash White Wine

1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice

Start by making the pasta. Process the flour, lightly beaten eggs and pinch of salt until the pasta forms into large crumbs, similar to something like an apple crumble in texture. Tip out onto a lightly floured, dry surface and press together until it forms a cohesive ball. Cover with glad wrap and set aside in a warm place for an hour or so to let it bind.

While that is happening, prepare the stuffing. Chop your mushrooms (we only had regular button mushrooms on hand, so used those, plus a packet of dried porcini reconstituted in hot water) finely. Then get some cloth (we used muslin, or cheesecloth, but a clean teatowel would do) and place a handful of mushrooms in the centre at a time and twist to remove as much liquid as possible. Repeat this until you have done this to all of the mushrooms.

Chop the onion finely and put in frypan with olive oil and butter over medium heat, once onions are soft, add mushrooms and keep lightly frying until they have expressed and then reabsorbed all their liquid, splash a little wine in, toss over parmesan/thyme and let wine reabsorb. Set aside to cool. Once this is cool, mix with Ricotta and Parmesan and taste for seasoning. Set aside while rolling out the pasta.

Get out pasta machine and roll out pasta onto a dry, floured surface to the thinnest setting, one sheet at a time.

Once a sheet has been completed, lay out on the bench and cut into squares, about 5x5cm. Using two teaspoons, place a small amount on mushroom stuffing on the middle of each square, when you have done the lot, brush two edges with water and fold over to form a triangle, then pick up the triangle, long edge facing you, press into the middle and bring the two edges of the pasta together to make a boat shape, you may also need to slightly wet the tips to stick them together. Repeat until you are all out of pasta and stuffing. If you have leftover pasta, cut into strips for parpadelle or keep as is for lasagne sheets.

Get a large pot of salted water onto the boil. In a separate frypan (I actually prefer a wok for this), heat the butter on a medium heat and add the proscuitto, mushrooms and sage. Add the pasta into the boiling water and keep watching the butter sauce, just when it starts to brown and smell nutty, add a splash of white wine and a splash of lemon juice. The pasta should be just about ready now, so transfer from the water to the wok and toss to combine, throw a handful of Parmesan over the top and toss some more. Plate, top with a little more Parmesan and eat!

Serves about 4 hungry people.

Simple Tomato Sauce.

2008-10-16T09:14:00.001+10:00

Ok, so we've moved house and just bought a new Camera and wanted to test out both the camera and kitchen, so here's a really simple, yet also very yummy recipe that we do all the time. This sauce can be used for pretty much anything, it's awesome as a pizza sauce, you can add abit of cream and sage to it and use it as a sauce for chicken or you can use it as a pasta sauce, which is what we ended up doing this time.

Ingredients:

2 x cans tomato (or 1kg fresh)

one onion

one garlic clove (optional)

one knob of butter

pinch of salt and sugar.

Method:

Ok, if you're using fresh tomatoes, put them in a pot with a little bit of water and cook them for about 5-10 minutes just to soften them up abit. Next, put tins or fresh tomato into a blender or food processor and blitz them until they're completely smooth and then pour into a saucepan.

Now, slice the onion in half and peel it, and place both halves into the saucepan and add the garlic clove if using.

Simmer down for half an hour to 45 minutes, you'll see the oil just start to separate from the tomatoes, that's when it's ready. Remove the onion and garlic, stir in your knob of butter and season with salt and sugar.

And that's it! So easy! You'll be suprised how damn good this tastes! You can use it as is or add extras to it to embellish it. In this case, we added some fried sliced chorizo, shredded silverbeet, capers and of course Parmesan.