Cabbage and carrot with smoky bacon and juniper berries

A tasty side dish, to have with smoked fish.

Made up out of what was handy: cabbage, carrot, bacon and juniper berries in a pan. I added a splash of white wine (because I had a glass in my hand) and a few tablespoons of pickling brine from some bread and butter pickles that I made the week before (because they were nearby).

Poached pineapple

I’m finding that Lucky Peach is great: not just to read, and not just for the whole recipes, but for small components of recipes. This recipe for this poached pineapple is actually supposed to be the basis for an upside down pineapple cake (which I was planning to make, until I realised that our hand-held blender can’t cream butter and sugar properly — ever wonder why there are no cakes on this blog?) Anyway, I’d already bought the pineapple, so figured I’d try it anyway. Surely poached pineapple on it’s own would be good for something?

It’s pretty easy to make: pineapple, white wine, water, peppercorns, cardamom pods, lots of sugar. I don’t make much sweet stuff and was shocked by the amount of sugar required, but Kate assured me it was normal for a sugar syrup.

You bring it to a simmer and poach the pineapple in a low oven for up to 3 hours. The wine makes it a little more fun than your regular tinned pineapple, and the pepper and cardamom add an exiting note. And the syrup can be reused which is a bonus.

We ended up having the pineapple for breakfast on crepes with yoghurt. Very sweet, and highly recommended!

Slow cooked lamb for passover

Based on the amount of pork on this blog, you probably wouldn’t have thought that I came from a Jewish family. But I do, and though we are largely non-practicing, we do celebrate passover every year, and passover is (in some ways) all about the food. Along with all the parts specified by the seder tradition, our family (nearly) always has pickled cucumbers, gefilte fish cooked in chicken stock, and some variation on lamb and vegetables.

My brother (a former chef) and I were tasked with preparing the main meal this year: slow cooked lamb shoulder and shanks. That’s my brother there in his professional looking apron, skilfully breaking down the mountain of meat. We rubbed it with crushed garlic, rosemary, salt and olive oil and blasted it in a hot oven for about half an hour.

After that, it’s just a matter of adding a little water, covering with foil, then back into a low oven for 3 hours or more until the meat is tender and gelatinous.

While the meat was roasting, we also prepared some strong chicken stock to serve with the gefilte fish from Glicks.

Once cooked, we strained off the fat from the pan and poured the juices back over (using some of the fat to roast onions and potatoes). A really simple and tasty way to do lamb.

My favourite comment of the night (after the seder ceremony which explains the various food: matzos, horseradish, kharoset, parsley etc etc on the table). “What about the pickles — what do they represent?” / “Oh, that’s just because we’re Jewish.”

Momofuku roast pork belly

I tried this recipe in issue 1 of Lucky Peach the other day — slowly working my way up to full home made ramen.

It’s really simple: lots of salt and sugar and a good grind of pepper, spread all over skinless pork belly, left overnight.

I didn’t want to waste the skin, so I made some crispy crackling and we had it with hoisin sauce — not bad…

After 24 hours a huge amount of liquid had come out of the meat, and it looked almost pickled. All you do now is roast it: a little while at a high temperature (to brown it), a long while at a low temperature (so it goes nice and soft)

You then (according to the recipe), need to wrap it tightly in plastic and leave it for at least 4 hours. We were very good and did so (but not after cutting off  nice chunk to taste straight away). Some of the best pork belly I’ve ever had: really great cold, even better reheated in a pan with a little water.

Grilled trout with pepper and roast cabbage

I did warn you about the griddle pan — my new favourite way to cook.

I just dressed the trout with loads of pepper, a little salt and oil and cooked it over high heat (oily fish is great on the griddle, it goes great and crispy), and served it with a squeeze of lime. Kate made the cabbage, roasting it with caraway seeds and lemon — I’d never had roast cabbage before, it was really delicious and went really well with the fish.

Steak Frites

I kind of overdid it with the jus, but it was pretty great anyway. This was my first attempt at cooking steak on our new(ish) griddle — so much better than in a regular pan…

I’m getting pretty good at oven frites. The important thing is to use a really hot oven, and to par-boil the potatoes first (adding a little vinegar to the water stops the pectin from breaking down so they don’t fall apart). I find organic kipfler potatoes work the best.

Steak on the griddle: as easy as can be…

For the jus: I just reduced some chicken stock and red wine, plus I added splashed water to the griddle while the steak was resting and added those juices too.

The frites turned out well: they take about half an our in a hot oven (I usually turn them once or twice).

Poached pears with ginger

I seem to be doing a lot with leftovers lately. The question seems to be at the end of a week “What can I make with what we have left in the fridge/on the bench)?”

So – on the bench was: 2 pears (a week old), some sweet red dessert wine (a month old), some white wine (a day or two old), and ginger (fresh).

So: poached pears with ginger! Everything in to a saucepan, with some sugar, cinnamon, a few peppercorns and cardamom pods.

Simmer until the pears are soft, reduce the liquid to a syrup. That’s it.

So now the left-overs in the fridge include delicious, sweet cinnamon & ginger syrup — great with ice-cream or yoghurt.

Grilled corn with chipotle mayo and cheese

There seems to have been an explosion of trendy mexican food in Melbourne over the last year or so. It’s a welcome addition to the culinary landscape: it’s always been really hard to find good Mexican food here.

Nearly all of them serve a variation on this simple dish, and I figured it was my turn to try.

It’s remarkably easy (and tasty). Chopped smoked chipotles (I use La Morena), and good quality mayo.

The best, most organic-est, freshest corn you can find.

Grill the corn, spread with the mayo,

sprinkle with cheese, squeeze over some lime, and eat!

For the cheese, you really should use queso fresco (I haven’t found any yet, but I haven’t tried so hard). The recipe works pretty well with regular tasty cheese.

Orange and rocket salad

Not much to say about this one – it’s just what it sounds like.

Segmented orange (I still haven’t got the hang of this), a little garlic, olive oil, pepper, parsley. You don’t need any acid, as the orange juice is enough.

It’s good with grilled meat or fish, or just about any Italian or Spanish food. Or anything really.

Chocolate ganache tart with cream cheese pastry and raspberries

This was a new recipe for me, but using techniques that I’d tried before. I made it for a dinner party at a friend’s place.

The pastry is actually an adaptation of a cookie dough recipe from Smitten Kitchen. It is a cream cheese dough, with extra richness from egg and orange zest. It is easy to work with and lovely and crumbly.

It’s quite easy to make too (although a little messy).

I made 1 quantity of dough from the Smitten Kitchen recipe, and it actually made enough for 2 tarts. This was fine, as cooked pastry freezes well: I just ended up making 2 pastry cases.

Once the dough had rested in the fridge for an hour, I rolled it out, and then placed it in a 22cm removable-bottom tart dish.

And blind baked the case: 15 minutes at 200ºC with the weights (I use chickpeas) in, 10 minutes with them out (to cook the inside). My favourite baking cookbook, Baking by James Peterson, actually recommends using dried beans or peas instead of aluminium baking weights (he says that the weights are too heavy and form indentations in the dough). Who am I to argue? And it’s cheap this way too!

The chocolate ganache filling is extremely easy. Chopped, high quality dark chocolate (I used Callebaut) and cream (I used 40% fat) in equal proportions. For a tart this size you need about 200g chocolate and 200ml of cream. Bring the cream to the boil, and pour over the chocolate to melt it, and then whip together.

Pour the hot ganache into the cooked pastry shell. I found it hard to get the top of the tart completely flat — It does tend to settle as it cools, but it to get it completely smooth you would probably have to use a blowtorch to melt the top once it had set. The ganache will set pretty solidly, but will still be a little soft at room temperature, so keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

The tart is great on its own, and the cream cheese pastry with orange adds and interesting touch, but it really needs some acidity to offset the richness: raspberries are perfect for this, and they look pretty too. We served them alongside, but you just as easily lay them in the tart when the ganache is still a little soft.