Recipe

“Black Risotto”

At least, the plan was for black risotto. Instead of using the usual Arborio or Carnaroli, I went with Black Glutinous rice. What resulted was a sweet, slightly crunchy risotto; with a deep burgandy colour. This time around, I flavoured the risotto with chicken.

Black Risotto (serves 2)
1 small red onion, diced finely
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 chicken thighs, diced
1 shot glass of cointreau
2 handfuls of black glutinous rice
1 cup homemade chicken stock (In my case, it’s much richer than store bought; so I dilute it)
3 cups water (aproximately)

Sweat the onion and garlic until aromatic; then add in the chicken. Saute until the chicken browns a little. Add the rice, and stir until the rice is glossy. Carefully add the cointreau, and stir until it evaporates. Lower the temperature, and add about a cup of stock+water. When that addition of liquid has been absorbed; add another cup of liquid. Repeat this step until the rice is tender.

Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille has to be among my favourites to cart out of the kitchen – it’s… impressive to look at. Usually, Mille Feuille is made with puff pastry; however the recipe I use (http://www.cuisine.co.nz/index.cfm?pageId=27734, uses filo/phyllo instead.

I understand that the name Mille Feuille roughly translates to “Thousand Layers”; and also that one can make a savoury Mille Feuille, traditionally using fish.

Mille Feuille

This appeared in Delish, back in the day; so if you read Delish then, this is nothing new. I was just poking about in my web stats and noticed Mille Feuille was something people were finding on my site, via search engines

Cured Salmon

Here’s a picture of some salmon (Ooh, and the method I used) I cured on Sunday. The colour of the photo is suprisingly close to the actual colour of the salmon – it was extremely bright.



Cured Salmon

Oh so very red.

This is salmon, which I cured.

The cure was made from…
Zest of 2 limes
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup sea salt
2 tablespoons of sugar

The zest of the lemons and limes was chopped up extremely finely; then mixed with the sugar and salt. I then rubbed the cure over the salmon; then wrapped it in foil and a zip-top baggie and left it in the fridge with a bit of weight on top. After a couple hours, I took the salmon out and patted it dry.
Yesterday, it ended up getting smoked; which was awesome.

Fudging About

Fudge

Fudge

Who’s the best cow-orker ever? I’m the best cow-orker ever. Behold, part of the fudging process.

Take 2 cups of sugar and three tablespoons of dutch-processed cocoa and combine them. Add a 1/2 cup of milk and a couple of knobs of butter; then heat gently until everything has melted and dissolved. Boil until it smells chocolatey, then add about a shot of cointreau. Wait a few minutes, then beat the crap out of it until it loses its shine, then pour into a tray.

Pot Sticker Dumplings

We’ve been eating a lot of pot sticker dumplings these past few days. It turns out that they are both easy to make, and extremely tasty.

First, you need to take a mission to yonder oriental food store in search of wonton wrappers. Luckilly, the wrappers come in packs of 100, so you don’t need to do this every time you make pot stickers. Unless, of course, you are making a lot of pot stickers at one time.

Next, defrost the wonton wrappers. Not all 100, mind you. But don’t panic! If there are any defrosted wonton wrappers left over, refreezing appears to be fine.

Meanwhile you’ll need to consider the filling.

We’ve been using a combination of minced pork, half of a finely diced red onion, half of a finely diced green capsicum and a lightly beaten egg with a little bit of hoisin and soy sauces and just a touch of salt and pepper. There are infinite variations on this theme, of course.

Alrighty. Assemblage of the pot stickers comes next.

Take a wonton wrapper, and wet two adjacent sides. Put about a teaspoon of the filling in the center, then fold the dry edges across to meet the wet edges; making sure any air gets squeezed out. Next, make two small pleats on the two joined edges of the triangle. Repeat until the filling and/or wanton wrappers run out. Next time we’re making these, I’ll try to remember to take pictures – it’s probably easier to figure out what is supposed to happen if you can see what is supposed to happen.

Finally, the cooking.

Take a wide pan, and heat a little bit of peanut oil in it. Place the pot stickers in the pan with big gaps between. In my pan, I can fit about five or six in at a time. Cook the pot stickers for two minutes; then add about a half cup of chicken stock and cook for a further two minutes with a lid.

It’s just like magic, really.