Honey Soy Chicken with Sesame

             Tonight I wanted something quick and tasty.  Oh and I wanted sticky and unctuous, something lip smackingly good.  Something that the kids would just eat without fuss, ok so I served it with bok choy which I am sad to say is not a a fuss free vegetable in our house, but I wanted it so they got too!  I enjoyed mine and they ate theirs because they wanted ice-cream.  But the simple steamed rice with the sweet and salty chicken and all the gorgeous goey sauce studded with ginger and garlic that hit the spot. 




Honey Soy Chicken with Sesame

1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely grated
2 large cloves finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon flavourless oil
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons dark soy (of course if you've only got light use that)
3 tablespoons water
juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sesame oil
8 -10 chicken drumsticks


1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Sliced spring onion (optional)


Heat the flavourless oil and add the ginger and garlic to it, cook gently until soft.   Combine honey, soy, water, sesame oil, lemon juice and black pepper with the softened garlic and ginger.  Cool.  Toss through chicken pieces and leave to marinate for as long as your schedule allows ie overnight or 30 minutes or somewhere in between.  Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c for 40 minutes.  Turning as often.  I recommend cooking the chicken in a smaller sized roasting dish so that the chicken cooks in a puddle of the marinade.  Serve sprinkled with the toasted sesame seeds and finely sliced spring onion.

Baklava

          

       Many different nations lay claim to the baklava, it is a well known pastry that has evolved through-out the Central Asian Countries.  It is thought to have begun with the nomadic tribes of turkey, it has been claimed by the Greek, the Armenians introduced it to the spice route and the middle eastern nations embraced it and made it their own.  There are many variations on this glorious sweet pastry but the heart of it is layers of thin delicate filo or phylo pastry and butter with a filling of either almonds, walnuts or pistachios or a combination ( I would also consider using pecans or macadamias ) baked and then soaked in a sugar syrup.   Depending on the ethnic group preparing the baklava there is also a variation of spices, honey or the addition of rose water or orange blossom water.  Here is my version and it is absolutely gorgeous, there is so little effort in making this sweet for such a big reward.



Baklava

125 grams each  almonds and walnuts
50 grams sugar
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamon
100 grams butter, melted
250 grams filo pastry

orange zest, jullienne
150 grams sugar
75 grams honey
1 cinnamon stick
1 tspn orange blossom water or rose water
150mls water

Grease a square cake tin with butter.  In a food processor pulse nuts with sugar and spices so that you have a mixture of course and fine nuts.  Cut the filo pastry to the size of your tin.  Cover with a damp tea towel so that the filo pastry does not dry out.  Layer one third of your pastry in the tin brushing each layer with butter as you go.  Cover pastry with half of the nut filling and repeat another layer of pastry, nuts and the final layer of pastry.  Refrigerate until firm and cut into portion size pieces.  Pre-heat the oven to 175c and bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.
For the syrup: using a peeler peel thin strips of orange skin and thin slice finely for jullienne.   Bring the sugar, honey, cinnamon, orange peel and water to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.  Stir in blossom or rose water.  Pour hot syrup over the hot pastry and allow to soak in (over night if you can possibly wait that long)

Caviar

         Caviar is simply sieved and lightly salted sturgeon roe.  There are less than 30 species of sturgeon with three of these being the most popular Beluga, Ossetra, and Sevruga.  The eggs can be black, brown, dark green, grey or golden.  The best known caviar comes from the countries on the Black and Caspian seas, but the decline in sturgeon numbers there and else where led to the suspension of the international trade of all caviar from wild sturgeon.  Good quality sturgeon caviar is now farmed. 
         The Russians like to spread caviar onto blinis (small buckwheat pancakes) with sour cream and vodka so when presented with a tin I took a leaf out of their book.  I also smeared it extravagantly on hot buttered toast.



Blinis

5 grams yeast
60mls warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
120mls milk
30grams butter, melted
60grams buckwheat flour
60grams white flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs, seperated

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the sugar put to one side until it begins to froth.  In a large bowl combine flours, salt, milk, egg yolks, melted butter and yeast mixture.   Leave batter in a warm place until it doubles in size.  Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold through batter with the whisk.  Fry spoonfuls of batter in vegetable oil and butter over a moderate heat.

On top of the blinis place a spoonful of seasoned sour cream mixed with chives or dill, top with caviar and serve with shots of icy cold vodka!


 

Lean and Mean

Asian Beef Noodle Salad

          I joined a gym which consequently made me think about eating a little healthier or maybe just lighter.   Eating healthily is not difficult, but  leaving the chocolate out of my diet might be making me lean but it's also making me a little mean.   To compensate for the lack of fat in my diet (and yes I could have trimmed my meat a little better) I've resorted to food that really packs a flavour punch lots of chilli, lime, soy and fresh herbs to make it lip smackingly good.   The taste buds tingle with sweet, sour, salty and hot.   This little dish also has plenty of texture crunchy vegetables and peanuts, soft slippery noodles and the slight chewiness of medium-rare steak.



Asian Noodle Salad


500 grams  rump steak (or for leaner cheap option try topside steak, just make sure you don't  
overcook)
         Marinade:  1 tbspn soy
                             1 clove garlic, cruched
                              1 tsp grated fresh ginger
         Marinate steak for at least 30 minutes if you have time
200 grams rice stick noodle (prepared to packets instructions)
125 grams mung beans
1 large carrot cut into matchsticks (or grate)
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup Vietnamese mint
2 red chillies de-seeded if you don't want too much heat, thinly sliced
1 cup peanuts roasted and roughly chopped
          Dressing:  2 limes zest and juice
                             1 stick lemongrass the white only finely chopped
                             1 tbspns fish sauce
                             2 tbspns soy sauce
                             1 clove garlic crushed
                             1 tbspn dark brown sugar
                             1 tsp sesame oil
            Simply combine dressing ingredients and set one side

Sear steak in a hot frypan that has a little oil in the bottom use a high heat and cook steak for 2 minutes each side.  Rest or cool and slice thinly across the grain.  Set aside.
In a large glass bowl toss all of the ingredients listed with the dressing, serve as soon as possible as the dressing will wilt the vegetables and herbs.

Sticky Date Cake

        
           This recipe has stood the test of time it's a big recipe designed to feed crowds of people add the Bailey's Toffee Sauce  and fresh whipped cream and cake becomes a luxurious  dessert.    This is good for the soul not for the hips...enjoy!


Sticky Date Cake

375grms dates
375mls boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
175grms butter, softened
3 eggs (at room temperature)
3 cups sifted self/raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the syrup (cool syrup onto hot cake)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1 tbspn butter
100mls brandy
2 tsp vanilla extract

Pour boiling water over dates  add baking soda and put to one side.  Line a  22 cm round cake pan with baking paper.  Pre-heat oven to 175c.  Cream together the sugar, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.  Stir through flour salt and date mixture pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until skewer comes out of cake clean.  Pour over cool syrup.

For the syrup bring all of the ingredients to the boil and boil for 5min.


Baileys Toffee Sauce

1 cup sugar
1 cup cream
1/2 cup baileys
1 tbspn butter
1 tsp vanilla extract


Caramelise sugar you can do this either by heating the sugar slowly until it dissolves and becomes a nice golden brown. (this process can be sped up by warming the sugar in the microwave) or you can add 1/2 cup of water to the sugar and boil this until it caramelises.  once the sugar has dissolved do not stir if the sugar is catching on the side of the pan use a wet pastry brush to wash down the sides.  Once the caramel has formed add the other ingredients
step well away as you do this because as soon as the cold ingredients hit the caramel it is going to splatter and caramel burns are nasty.  Bring back to the boil and its ready to go. 

Bringing the heat

Chile and Ginger Beef

         The beginning of winter has arrived and with it the cold and wet weather.  To warm us up I made this dish adapted from http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/shin-of-beef-with-chilli-ginger-and-soy/  My boys didn't enjoy the chilli heat but I found it to be lip smackingly good.  After I browned the meat and de-glazed the pan I put everything into the slow-cooker for almost 6 hours on the high setting I just walked away and left it be.  This is so simple and so tasty.
         If you have difficulty getting shin meat then try it with any of the casserole steaks chuck, gravy or blade.  After something leaner, then topside steak is a good option.  I bought  fresh rice noodles from my local asian grocer they have a luscious pillowy softness and absorbed the spicy broth beautifully.


Chile and Ginger Beef

1kg shin beef with the bone (naughty me loves the marrow)
2 fresh red chillis (cut in half and sliced, if you want to lessen the heat take out the seeds)
2 inches fresh ginger ( thinly sliced into 10cm rounds)
4 cloves garlic (sliced thinly)
500mls apple juice
150mls soy sauce
1 tbspn brown sugar
2 star anise (also found at local asian markets)
salt and pepper

Season the meat well with salt and pepper.  Brown until well caramelised on  a high heat on both sides put in slow-cooker.  Use the apple juice and soy sauce to lift off the sediment at the bottom of the pan and pour hot liquid over meat.  Add in garlic, ginger, chilli, brown sugar and star anise stir through and walk away!  Leave for 6 hours in slow cooker on high.  The meat will be soft and unctuous as all the connective tissues break down.  Serve in bowls with noodles or rice and a quick stir-fry of your favourite green.

Having your cake and eating it too!

Clowning Around

        I like birthday's and i really like being able to make that Birthday cake that little bit special.  My boy chose this cake, he was very specific about the smooth icing on top and that he wanted white and chocolate layers so I chose quick-mix butter cakes simple and easy these cakes are the ones that you go back to time after time and they can feature in as many variations as you can think of.  The layers of cake are sandwiched together with vanilla butter cream before being covered with sugar paste/fondant icing.  The clown figure was hand molded from sugar paste.

Vanilla and Chocolate Butter Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick-mix Vanilla Butter Cake

125g butter
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar 
1 1/2 cup flour


Grease and flour a 20cm round cake pan or line with paper.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, beat in eggs one at a time until combined.
 Stir through sieved flour and milk.  Spread into prepared tin bake for 35 min in a moderate oven.


Changing it up try  2 tsp orange zest
                           or  2 tsp lemon zest
                           or  1/2 cup cocoa plus an extra 1/4 cup milk
                           or   3 tsp instant coffee




Vanilla Buttercream

125grms softened butter
250grms icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp boiling water

Beat all the ingredients together till light and fluffy.  Will keep for a week in the fridge or can freeze.