Cookbook Challenge: Week 12, Eggs

Recipe: Oozy egg ravioli
From: Cook with Jamie

Eggs are stupid,
Eggs are dumb,
So take the eggs
And stick em up your........

:D

The theme for this week's Cookbook Challenge is "eggs" and I actually don't think eggs are stupid nor dumb. I love eggs! My favourite way of eating them is poached, with a still oozy yolk. Which is probably why I decided on this recipe.

For the theme this week, I made fresh pasta (with eggs) and turned the pasta into oozy egg ravioli. Double the egginess right there. I think I remember seeing this ravioli on the Fifteen reality show, and I remember it looking very impressive.

The recipe involves first making the pasta, and then rolling it out (or putting it through a pasta machine) into thin sheets. A tablespoon of seasoned ricotta is placed down, and an egg yolk is placed on top.



Here's one ravioli ready for the top sheet of pasta - look at that beautiful yolk. After the yolk is placed, the ravioli is sealed, and then cooked for a few minutes, before being covered in a butter sauce and topped with some pepper and a smattering of parmesan.

While making the ravioli isn't complicated, it is a bit of effort putting them together. You have to be quite careful not to break the egg yolks - I broke two, gaaaah. The only change I made from the recipe was to put some sage leaves into the butter.

>

Ideally, only cooking the pasta for a few minutes will leave the yolk still runny. And ahhh yes, so it did. It does look good with the gooey yolk. I'm not sure I would bother making them again, but I'm glad I tried it at least once!

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.

Update: See the round up at My Food Trail



Check out the recipe for making fresh pasta and also the oozy egg ravioli here (the pasta recipe is the second one down, and the ravioli is the last recipe) - saves me from having to type it out!

Spiced aubergine stew

I received Nigel Slater's Tender for my birthday in December - and it has quickly become one of my favourite cookbooks. Every time I read a bit of it, it makes me want to eat and grow vegetables! The book is set out alphabetically, with each chapter dealing with a different vegetable in the garden and in the kitchen. Admittedly, I am biased about this book because Nigel Slater is already one of my favourite food writers. I adore the way he writes about food and even the recipes in the book are interesting reading. I also particularly love the photos of his small but productive London garden over the four seasons. Oh, to have a garden that looks like that!

Aubergine is one of the first chapters in the book, and recently I followed the recipe for a spiced aubergine stew and - it was amazing! The stew was spiced with cardamon and coriander seeds, perfect because I love those flavours. There was also a sweetness from the tomatoes, followed by the creaminess of the coconut cream and then lastly a real hit of chilli heat. The aubergine was meltingly soft. We ate the stew with basmati rice and it was delicious.

It's one of those recipes where you definitely want whole spices to grind yourself. The spices smelt amazing. Near the end of the cooking time, I tasted the sauce before and after adding the herbs, and I think I preferred it without the herbs. The herbs seemed to make take the pow! out of the stew and make it less spicy. I will leave them out next time because I loved that chilli hit.

I reckon even people who don't normally like aubergine wouldn't mind this dish. And if you don't like aubergine? Well, I'll leave you with a quote from the book, and perhaps it will change your mind:

The aubergine seduces. No other vegetable can offer flesh so soft, silken and tender. You don't so much chew an aubergine as let it dissolve on your tongue.

I'm convinced.



Spiced aubergine stew

Adapted from Nigel Slater's Tender Volume 1

Note: I have paraphrased the recipe to make it more "instruction-y". The recipe in the book is far more chatty.

Enough for 6

1kg aubergines
2 medium onions
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 green cardamon pods
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
4 cloves garlic
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled
2 rounded teaspoons ground turmeric
2 x 400g can of diced or whole tomatoes
1 x 400ml tin of coconut cream
water
4 small, hot red chillies, finely chopped
a small bunch of mint (I would suggest leaving this out)
a small bunch of coriander (again, would suggest leaving this out)

Wipe the aubergines and cut them into fat chunks (don't cut them too small). Place a colander into the sink, tip in the aubergines, and sprinkle salt over them. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Peel and roughly chop the onions. Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat, and add the onions, cooking until they are soft and translucent.

Meanwhile, crush the cardamon pods with the flat of a knife, and shake out the little black seeds into a mortar or spice grinder. Add the coriander seeds and peppercorns, and grind all the spices to a coarse powder.

Thinly slice the garlic and cut the ginger into thin matchsticks. Stir the garlic and ginger into the onions. Add the turmeric, ground spices and canned tomatoes.

Rinse the aubergines and pat dry. Without oil, fry them in a pan until they are starting to soften and starting to go brown, turning them as they cook. Do a small amount at a time, until all the aubergines are fried.

Add the aubergines to the onions, and add the coconut milk, chillies and a little salt. Add enough water to just cover, if necessary. Bring up to the boil, and then turn down to a low simmer and cook for about 45 minutes. Afterwards, the aubergines should be very soft but not falling apart.

Lift out the aubergines and some of the onions with a draining spoon. Boil the sauce hard for five minutes to reduce, and then puree with a stick blender (you could skip this step and just have a chunky sauce).

Return the vegetables to the pot, chop up the mint and coriander and stir in, and season with salt and pepper. Serve with rice.

Cookbook Challenge: Week 11, Mixed

Recipe: Persian jewelled rice with chicken
From: The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman

The theme for this week's Cookbook Challenge is "mixed", which is a fairly open theme. I had a few ideas for things I could do for this week. I thought that I could make something that had different textures, or a dish that had a mixture of sweet and savoury. I also thought about making something that needed a mixer as part of the preparation, or cooking something that involved mixed berries.

In the end, I decided to do this Persian jewelled rice with chicken. It fits into the "mixed" theme, because the dish has a mixture of dried fruit, as well as being a mixture of sweet and savoury.

I had great intentions of cooking this dish in the late afternoon, so that by the time it was cooked, it would still be bright enough to take photos, and then I could exercise before dinner (it's habit, I must exercise at the same time on my exercise days otherwise it doesn't happen!). My good intentions were almost dashed by the fact that I ended up having a nana nap on the couch for a couple of hours..... and by the time I got off the couch, the cool change had kicked in and storm clouds had gathered over the house, cutting out a lot of light.

Fortunately, I didn't need as much time as I had thought to cook the dish, and there was still enough light to take photos, despite the rain. Phew. Glad I didn't end up regretting that nana nap, because really, is there anything better than a nap in the arvo??



The recipe itself was a bit of a kerfuffle. It seemed overly complicated for what is essentially cooked rice mixed with chopped up chicken and pieces of dried fruit. I did follow the recipe when making it, but it would be different if I were to do it my way. My way would involve cooking the rice by absorption method, and once cooked, mixing in the cooked chicken and dried fruit. It would be less complicated and take much less time!

I was a bit worried that the rice would end up far too sweet (check out the part where carrots are simmered in water and 200g of sugar!) but it was fine. With all the dried fruit, there were definite sweet parts to it, but not overly so. The nuts and the chicken helped balance it out.

I'm not sure that I would bother following the recipe again, although I did like the idea of the rice studded with bits of coloured fruit. Like I said, it seemed overly complicated and while it was tasty, it wasn't tasty enough to be worth all that effort!

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here

Update: See the round up for this week at My Food Trail.



Persian jewelled rice with chicken

From The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman

Serves 6

500g basmati rice
1.5kg roasting chicken, jointed
salt
2 large onions, chopped
finely shredded rind of 1 large orange (I used lemon)
2 large carrots, cut into fine slivers
200g sugar
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
150g raisins
150g dried barberries or cherries (I used cranberries)
150g dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
a few strands of saffron, dissolved in 2 tablespoons hot water (optional)
shredded almonds and chopped pistachios to garnish

Rinse the rice well, and leave it to soak in cold, salted water for a few hours.

In a non-stick pan, place the chicken and one of the chopped onions. Sprinkle in a little salt and then cover and cook over a very low heat (don't add any water). Let it cook for about 45 minutes. The chicken will simmer in its own fat and juices. Cool, then bone and skin the chicken and cut into small pieces. Set aside, and reserve any juices from the chicken.

Next, place the orange rind, carrots and sugar in a pot, and cover with 300ml water. Boil for 10 minutes and then drain.

In a frying pan, cook the other onion in half the oil until translucent, then add the raisins, barberries and apricots. Cook for a few minutes, then add the orange and carrot mixture. Drain, and set aside.

In a large non-stick or heavy based saucepan, bring 1.5 litres of water to the boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt, and then add the drained rice. Bring it back to the boil and then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Let the rice simmer for 3 minutes and then drain. Rinse with tepid water and shake gently into the sieve to keep the grains separate. Set aside.

Wash out the pan, and add the rest of the oil. Swirl the oil around so it covers some of the sides as well as the bottom.

With your hands, sprinkle in a layer of rice (this helps to aerate it). Top the rice with some chicken, then fruit. Continue with the layers, trying to build up into a conical shape, and finish with a layer of rice. Poke a few holes through the rice with the end of a wooden spoon.

Drizzle over the reserved chicken juices, the remaining oil and the saffron. Cover the pot with a clean tea towel, then a tight lid, and cook for 1-2 minutes on a high heat. Then reduce the heat to very low and let it "steam" for a further 40 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and leave to stand for five minutes before lifting off the lid. Serve in a mound on a large platter, garnished with almonds and pistachios (I just mixed mine all through the rice).

Cookbook Challenge: Week 10, Cool

Recipe: Iced beetroot soup
From: Jill Dupleix's Lighten Up

Argh! I'm late for (last week's) Cookbook Challenge! Despite knowing what I was going to make at the beginning of the week, I'm still late with it! In my defense though, I was going to do it in the weekend but ended up spending all day Saturday painting the walls of our bottom floor. I thought that I would be able to squeeze in some quick cooking on the day, but the painting took much longer than I thought, despite getting up early (7:30am on a SATURDAY, thank you very much). We were out on Saturday night, and out all day on Sunday, so there was no opportunity to do my Cookbook Challenge recipe.

I did take yesterday (the day before Australia Day) off, but guess what I spent it doing? More painting! I painted the lower stairway, and again that took all day. Anyway, here I am finally, only a couple of days late. Thank goodness today is a public holiday!



The theme for Week 10 is "cool" and guess what? Unlike the past five weeks, I didn't do a sweet recipe! Instead, I did a chilled beetroot soup. I can't say I've ever had a beetroot soup before, much less a cold one, so had zero expectations of this one.

Well I'm pleased to say that the soup is very good and would be very refreshing on a hot day. It's quite spicy with the shallots and raw garlic (warning, it tends to hang around for a bit afterwards!), while still being sweet and earthy. Plus it's a gorgeous ruby-red colour. It could be the prettiest soup ever!

After making the soup, I still have half a bunch of beetroot left. I wonder what I should do with it. Perhaps I could work it into this week's theme (mixed)...?

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.

Update: See the round up for this week at My Food Trail.



Iced beetroot soup

From Jill Dupleix's Lighten Up

Serves 6 to 8

3 shallots
2 celery stalks (I didn't have any and left this out)
500g beetroot, cooked and peeled
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
300ml vegetable stock or water
sea salt and pepper
1 tablespoon horseradish cream
100g thick Greek yoghurt
chives to finish

Roughly chop the shallots, celery and the beetroot and mix with the crushed garlic, wine vinegar and olive oil.

Cover and leave it to marinate for a couple of hours or overnight.

Place the beetroot mixture into a blend and blend to a smooth puree. Add the stock, salt and pepper and blend again until smooth.

Chill until ready to serve.

Stir the horseradish cream with the yoghurt. When ready to serve, add a dollop of the horseradish yoghurt on top of the soup, grind over some pepper and spear with a chive.

Pocky / Pejoy series: Blueberry Cheese Double Pretz

After our time in Japan (I only have a couple more posts to go!), Alastair and I spent 5 days in Hong Kong and China. While in China, I noticed in the supermarket that there were lots and lots of Pocky and Pejoy flavours (there were probably tons in Japan too, but I wasn't on the look out). You can buy Pocky in Australia, but not many flavours - normally just chocolate, strawberry, plus a couple of others.

Pocky and Pejoy are biscuit stick snacks made by the Japanese confectionery company, Glico. Pocky sticks are dipped in a variety of flavoured creams, while Pejoy contains the flavoured cream inside the stick. There is also Pretz, which are usually savoury with no cream coating.

Bro went to HK a couple of weeks after we returned, and I asked him to bring me back some Pocky and Pejoy. Lo and behold, he came back with a mountain of various flavours! I’ll do a post each time I try one of the flavours.



The first flavour I tried was neither Pocky nor Pejoy - not off to a brilliant start for a Pocky/Pejoy series! Anyway, the first box was the Blueberry Cheese Double Pretz. It’s “Double” Pretz rather than normal Pretz because there is a small line of flavour piped along the length of the biscuit stick, as well as the stick being flavoured with the blueberry cheese (I assume!).



The Pretz had a touch of sweetness, with a fake blueberry flavour. The blueberry was similar to a flavour that you would find in bubblegum, but quite mild.

I enjoyed them and found them very moreish. One thing that I really liked was how the sticks were only slightly sweet – there was a savouriness to the biscuit stick that made me want to keep eating them! I nearly polished off the whole box in one sitting. Thumbs up for this flavour!