Smokin’ Risotto

Here is the recipe for the risotto I mentioned, that I made the IKEA bread to go with. It is adapted from a recipe in Woman’s Day magazine, that I came across whilst flicking through mags at the hairdresser recently. I still had the Huon hot smoked salmon from Tasmania that I won on Valentine’s Day, so the recipe caught my eye.

If you haven’t got access to hot smoked salmon, just poach/steam some fresh salmon fillets in the microwave instead, and flake them into the rice mixture.

This risotto is amazing! I mean it. Complete and utter melt-in-your-mouth perfection that just comes together in a moment of pure food delight.

Salmon & Pea Risotto

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 small red chillies, finely chopped

2 cups arborio rice

½ cup white wine

5 cups chicken stock

¾ cup frozen peas, thawed

¾ cup fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed

3 tbsp fresh tarragon leaves, chopped

1 lemon – zest and juice of

250 gms hot smoked salmon fillet (or equivalent cooked fresh salmon fillet, skinless)

cracked pepper, to taste

optional – shaved fresh parmesan cheese

In a large, deep pan (a wok is good), heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and chillies and saute, stirring, for 2 minutes until softened.

Add rice, stirring to coat, and saute for 1 minute.

Add the wine and then the chicken stock, gradually, stirring constantly as the liquid absorbs into the rice. When all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked (15-20 minutes), add remaining ingredients and fold through until gently heated.

Top with a sprinkling of shaved parmesan if desired, and serve with fresh bread.

Serves 4-6 depending on what you have with it – it is quite filling.

Happy Fooding!

Hawaiian Crockpot Chicken

Don’t be fooled by the title above and the ingredients below – this actually does not taste sweet! I think the soy sauce counter-balances the juice and sugar, making it just right.

Simple and tasty, this recipe is based on one of those random facebook postings that you get, designed as a sort of ad but giving you something to entice you into clicking the link. There are a lot of those popping up in people’s feeds lately I’ve noticed – not just recipes, but also a lot of home-remedy cleaning tips. I never click on the links, but I do sometimes write down the recipe ideas, and this one worked really well.

Definitely use thigh fillets here and not breast, as it will be way too dry with breast.

Hawaiian Crockpot Chicken

1 kg chicken thigh fillets, trimmed of any fat/skin

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup light soy sauce

cracked pepper

1 tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp cold water

1 cup sugar snap peas

Combine chicken, pineapple juice, sugar, soy sauce and pepper in crockpot. Mix well and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours.

Blend cornflour and water then add this and the peas, to the crockpot. Stir to blend and cook for a further 1 hour.

Serve with black rice, yoghurt & naan bread if desired.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Shhhhh….The Kids Will Never Know It’s Not Rice

At the risk of totally boring you…..yes it’s cauliflower again! But does it look like it?? Not a bit.

I like to think I’m pretty much up there with the latest food trends, products and “in things”, but it was made clear to me last week (thanks Jane!) that I have missed the cauliflower rice phenomenon, completely and utterly.

I picked up a large cauli for $1.37 on Friday, so after scouring the e-world for many variations, this is my version of “fried rice” without rice. You can really use this in any way that you would use rice, and add anything you like. I really wanted the zing of fresh lemon juice/zest, plus a bit of pizzazz from chilli (not much, just a hint), and it worked beautifully, in fact I scoffed a bowl of this and thought omg how moreish is this.

Super healthy, versatile and soooooo easy if you have a food processor. As long as cauliflower stays cheap this will be a new staple food in my cooking. Plus you can freeze it in sandwich bags for future use, when cauli is in season.

There are many step-by-step photos around, of how to make cauliflower rice – just google and you’ll find plenty of recipe ideas. If you don’t have a food processor, use a cheese grater – works just as well but is more labour intensive and slower.

Cauliflower Fried Rice

1 large head of cauliflower

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp chilli paste (I like Masterfoods)

juice of 1 lemon

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp vegetable stock

1/2 cup frozen peas

(and next time I’ll add some chopped coriander – just didn’t have any to hand this time)

Cut the cauliflower into florets (make sure it is completely dry)  and place in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped – should be rice sized grains.

Heat olive oil in a pan or wok. Add the onion and garlic, and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Serves 6 as a side dish, or if you are having it on its own as a bowl of deliciousness, serves 3.

This is a perfect dish to serve fussy kids who like rice but won’t eat vegies – they’ll never know it’s not rice! You can make it plain without adding the onion etc too – just saute for 7-8 mins until “al dente”.

Happy Fooding!

 

Restaurant Review: Gurkhas Nepalese

11 of us went to the relatively new Gurkhas Nepalese Restaurant in Highgate for dinner last weekend, following pre-drinks at the Brisbane Hotel, which is only a stone’s throw away.

Four of us chose to have the $38.50 banquet so that we could try a few different dishes. The starter was delicious mo-mos (steamed dumplings), with a meat filling and a bit of spice, and little paneer-filled spring roll type things that were divine.

Service was good, our main waiter was super friendly and very happy to change the listed banquet dish of Butter Chicken to Chicken Tikka Masala instead. We also had goat, cooked on the bone – the meat was lovely and tender, but I’m not so fussed about having to deal with big chunks of bone in my meal when I’m out – and very nice Palak Paneer, one of my favourite Indian dishes.

The Tarka Dal was beautiful, quite an unusual blend of spices and unlike any dal I’ve had before – quite runny in texture, but it tasted really, really good. We had plain and saffron rice, and plain and garlic naan bread.

Serving sizes were not overly big – we ate the lot and I was full, but only just.

We could choose whichever dessert from the menu that we wanted (I didn’t have one, as Indian desserts I do not find appealing at all, but the rice pudding and ice cream was enjoyed by the others).

I like my food very hot and spicy, and these dishes were not particularly so – I guess a banquet is designed to suit a blander palate than mine – but it was very happily enjoyed by the other three, who were not very familiar with Indian style foods. Next time I would order my own individual dishes so that I could ask for things to be made extra hot!

Currently Gurkhas is BYO only, with a corkage charge of $2.50 for each wine-drinking guest (this is VERY cheap for Perth), and we were informed that they have applied for a full liquor licence, but the process takes a long time. There is no bottle shop close by, so being licenced will be a plus for those like me who always forget to take a bottle and then have to rush off to the nearest bottle-o to grab something!

Overall a good value eating place, close to the city, relaxed atmosphere with friendly staff – not stupendously fantastic, but then again not horribly overpriced and pretentious like some Perth restaurants. Gurkhas is certainly worth going back to.

Happy Fooding!

Still on the Quinoa Train…

I recently borrowed Cooking With Quinoa: The Supergrain from work. It’s a great resource for quinoa recipes, and here is a lamb dish that I’ve adapted. The only time-consuming part was grinding a tablespoon of cumin seeds – as I have quite weak wrists I find using a mortar and pestle not that easy, but I do prefer to grind the spices freshly as I need them. I sat outside in the sun with my neighbour, grinding away whilst stopping regularly for champagne liquid refreshment to keep me going!

Lamb With Quinoa

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium brown onions, cut in half & thinly sliced

500 gms minced lamb

5 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds, whole

1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground

3/4 cup quinoa (rinse it if you prefer)

1/4 cup black rice

1 tbsp light soy sauce (I like Pearl River Bridge)

1 tsp chilli paste

2 cups hot water

1 cup frozen peas

1 red chilli, sliced

10 dried prunes, roughly chopped

preserved lemon & low-fat Greek yoghurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan, and saute onion until soft and golden. Add lamb mince and cook until well browned.

Stir in the garlic, cumin seeds and ground cumin, and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the quinoa, rice, soy sauce, chilli paste and water. Stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa is almost cooked.

Stir in the frozen peas and prunes, and cook for a further 8 minutes. Add the sliced chilli and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Serve with pieces of preserved lemon and yoghurt, if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

Asparagus Risotto

Risottos are usually made with LOTS of butter, which doesn’t suit my low-fat lifestyle, so this is my reduced-fat version of a basic risotto. The only tricky thing here is to stir continually, whilst gradually adding the liquid – otherwise you get brown crusty bits in your risotto and your poor saucepan ends up with a burnt bum!

I usually use lemon juice, but this time added preserved lemon instead, from my recently made jar – wow, such a difference. Definitely worth it.

Risotto should be soup-y, so keep adding extra liquids if you need to. It is quite a bit more gluggy and stodgy the next day, so serve immediately if you are having guests, but leftovers (I like it cold, which by now should not surprise you…) are great in a bowl the next day if you don’t mind it being a bit more solid.

Asparagus Risotto

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 bunch asparagus, cut into 2.5cm pieces

1 brown onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

2 tbsp basil pesto

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice OR 1 wedge preserved lemon, finely chopped

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated

cracked pepper, to taste

Heat oil and butter in a heavy based pan; saute onion and asparagus until onion is transparent. Add rice and pesto, and cook for 1 minute, stirring to coat well.

Mix wine and stock together in a jug, and slowly add to the rice, stirring constantly. Add bit by bit as the rice absorbs the liquid (if necessary, add extra chicken stock until the rice is cooked).

Add lemon, cheese and pepper, mix through and serve.

Serves 3-4.

Happy Fooding!

Teriyaki Chicken

Last week my mum recommended this recipe to me, from the One Pot Cooking book put out a couple of years ago by Super Food Ideas magazine. I LOVE this book! It is a compilation of no-fail, easy family recipes from one of my favourite food magazines. In fact, I could have sworn I had already shared the Chicken With Lemon & Olives recipe from it with you before (one of my all-time favourite recipes!), but I can’t find it anywhere here so I must not have. I will do that soon.

This is a perfect post-work-gee-I’m-too-tired-to-cook meal! And although I thought the chillies would have an impact, in fact I couldn’t taste anything “spicy” whatsoever.

Japanese Teriyaki Chicken

500 gms chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces

1/2 cup teriyaki marinade (the recipe says 1/4 cup but I felt that wasn’t enough)

1 tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice

2 long red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced

1 carrot, grated

1 bunch baby pak choy, trimmed, washed & roughly chopped

shredded nori (seaweed) OR black sesame seeds, for garnish

Combine chicken and marinade in a glass or ceramic dish and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a large saucepan and brown the chicken then set aside.

Add rice, water and a further splash of teriyaki marinade, to the saucepan, and bring to the boil.

Reduce heat to low. Place the chicken and chillies on top of the rice and cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Stir in carrot and pak choy and cook for a further 2 minutes until pak choy has wilted.

Top with nori or sesame seeds to serve.

Serves 4.

The recipe suggests that you can make this a Malaysian style dish rather than Japanese, by using satay sauce instead of teriyaki marinade, and garnishing with coriander instead of nori. Sounds good to me!

Happy Fooding!

Black Rice

SunRice have recently started selling black rice here, so I had to try some of course. Of course black rice is widely available if you have access to good Aisan markets, but I don’t at the moment.

I cooked it in the microwave (found the instructions here as they weren’t on the packet) and although it takes quite a bit longer to cook than even wholemeal rice (which I usually use as it has so much flavour than white, not to mention being better for you), it was worth the wait. Nutty flavours but not with that bitey “stick” flavour of the wild rice (which is a variety of black rice anyway) you get in a blend sometimes.

Overall I was pretty impressed – it went well with the beef stir-fry I threw together (no recipe, just made it up using whatever I could find) and I will definitely make it again.

Happy Fooding!

Some More Meals….

Beetroot & Orange Cured Salmon

Food makes such a great topic for taking photos. Here are some of the meals enjoyed last week when I was away….totally scrumptious to look at and mostly to taste as well.

Chicken & Mushroom Pot Pie

The salmon and chicken dishes above were from Red Hill Brewery Cafe. I had the salmon (does that surprise you…) and it was divine BUT way too small – it was supposed to be a “light meal” but I was still very hungry after this tiny portion of just a few mouthfuls – more like a tapas plate than a meal for one. I tasted the chicken pie and it too was delicious. I had to have a cheese platter to fill me up (below) and this was mouthwateringly good – the cheese was a locally made camembert from Red Hill Cheese, that had been slightly warmed so it literally melted onto the warm fruit & nut bread.

Cheese Board

Later the same day, I went to The Bay in Mornington, for dinner – herbed calamari for me (I said no to chips and just had salad), and a chicken parma and arancini balls were enjoyed by others.

Then on Monday, before flying home, my son and I had lunch at one of my favourite pubs in the city, PJ O’Brien’s. It is supposed to be Irish but apart from Irish Stew, Beef & Guinness Pie and loads of Irish beer on tap, it’s really just normal pub fare. I love the atmosphere here and the food’s always great. I had a chicken caesar salad and it was out of this world, crispy bacon and a yummy poached egg, mmmmm delicious.

A lot of food was partaken of, in just a few days – apart from the 21st party, and the meals I’ve already told you about, I had fish from the local fish & chip shop twice (I usually don’t whinge about the differences between the states, but the grilled flake is sooooooo much better in Victoria, and way cheaper too). I’m in recovery mode now and made soup today to get back to healthy living….

Happy Fooding!

A Sushi & Sashimi Fix

You know that I love salmon beyond almost anything in life….and so it follows from there that I adore sushi and sashimi. In fact I adore raw tuna just as much as raw salmon, and if I get the chance to have really great raw fish I have a wonderful time.  I love all sorts of Japanese food, but I really think if you’re going to go to a Japanese restaurant you have to go with what they do best, which is amazing fresh sushi and sashimi. Divine, it just melts in your mouth, and no matter how full you get, you don’t get a bloated “omg I’ll never eat again” feeling like you do if you overload on pasta or Indian.

I’ve been to many delightful Japanese restaurants, in various countries. My favourite in the whole world (so far) is Matsuri in Adelaide. Now this is a very common restaurant name – there’s one here in Perth, and I’ve been to a Matsuri in Chile as well – not affiliated with each other in any way.  Matsuri in Adelaide does the most amazing “sushi boat” – see the second photo down the page, here. It’s such a relaxing experience, taking your time over a big pile of little bits, with lots of wasabi, pickled ginger, miso soup and a bottle of white wine (or 2, by the time you’ve finished eating – this is absolutely not fast eating).

I think my second best sushi/sashimi experience has been at Japan Restaurant at the Hotel Nippon, in Santiago (Chile). Unfortunately, as I am not likely to live there again, I won’t be going back there anytime soon 😦

Last weekend I went to Seizan here in the city. I’ve been here twice before, but not for a couple of years. Luckily I had booked, as whilst waiting outside beforehand I saw 2 groups of guests arrive and be turned away, as it was fully booked out.  Now this place is not the most fantastic Japanese I’ve had, but it certainly holds its own and is the better of the Perth options that I have tried to date.

Seizan is also in the Entertainment Book, so that meant a discount of $28 – nothing to be sneezed at!

We were the last to leave the restaurant, in fact they were prodding us to go as they were closing up! A very nice, spread out meal, leaving lovely flavours and textures to remember and go back for again.

Happy Fooding!