Prawn Risotto with Peppers, Olives and Zucchini
Simple rustic foods is often the most satisfying both to cook and to eat. Among the best of such dishes is risotto in one of its various culinary combinations. Regardless of the final flavor profile good risotto always starts with a good risotto base.
In a heavy, wide bottomed pan heat some oil, add garlic and finely diced onion to sweat before adding the abario rice and stirring it thoroughly to coat the grains with oil. Season the rice before deglazing with dry white wine and then stirring in hot, clear chicken stock to cover the rice. Only stir the rice enough so that it doesn’t stick and then reduce to the minimum possible heat and let the risotto base simmer. As it takes up the stock add more until the rice grains are tender then remove it from the heat and allow it to rest.
Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan and add some garlic and chilli followed by a generous amount of prawns. Allow the prawns to sear quickly over a high heat before adding the thinly chopped oloives then the diced peppers and zucchini. Toss this in the pan to brown it evenly, seasoning with plenty of salt and cracked black pepper. Deglaze the pan with more wine, add the cooked risotto, a splash of tomato passata and some shredded fresh basil. Allow this to cook until it stiffens up before serving with freshly grated Grana Padano Parmesan, crusty Ciabatta bread and a large glass of Chianti.
Chicken Soup
I don’t think that there is a cuisine on earth that doesn’t make some sort of chicken soup. Even a half good cook can produce a chicken soup that is edible but in the hands of a talented chef this simple dish can be a satisfying symphony of flavor. This potage is the foundation of the chef’s soup making repertoire and requires all of his skills to make a good one. Good chicken soup begins with a good stock and too often not enough care is taken when it is made. Rather than just popping an old boiler in a pot of water and boiling it up for a couple of hours which produces a bitter and greasy stock, it is better to break the whole chicken into pieces and to simmer them gently with some onion, carrot, celery, parsley, garlic, peppercorns, whole cloves, bay leaves and sprigs of fresh thyme. Patiently simmer the chicken until it falls away from the bones then lift it out of the broth and set it aside to cool while you strain the stock, reserving only the liquid.
I prefer a simple recipe of vegetables and herbs with my chicken soup. I start with a small dice of onion and carrot, add a slightly larger dice of celery, turnip and potato, and finally I add sweet corn kernels and peas. Strip the meat off of the chicken bones but don’t break it up too finely. Heat some oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot and quickly sweat off the vegetables with some salt and pepper, oregano and chopped parsley. Add the chicken meat and mix through the vegetables thoroughly before covering with the reserved stock and topping up the pot with water. Simmer this for at least an hour, until the chicken begins to look shredded. Serve in deep bowls garnish with fresh julienne of spring onions.
Apple Sauce
I love apples. They are easily my favorite fruit. In the kitchen they are extremely versatile in everything from salads, sweets and savory dishes. The classic dish I suppose would be Apple Pie or perhaps Apple Crumble. Either way the success of the dish relies on the floral flavor of apples even if the spices do try to steal the show. I like to bake apples after removing the core and stuffing the fruit with brown sugar, spices and dried fruit like currants or prunes that has been reconstituted in brandy or rum. Served with custard or ice cream they make an attractive and popular sweet course.
Whenever there is roast pork on a menu the punters will invariably want their apple sauce with it and unfortunately it is often just a commercial condiment with no flavor and less character. It is so easy to make a good apple sauce that it would seem silly to buy it in and the finish that a homemade apple sauce give to a simple plate of roast pork makes it worth going to that little bit of extra effort. I like to use good sweet eating apples, my latest favorites are Pink Lady apples which are almost like a sweet Granny Smith.
Core and peel the apples and cut into quarters before putting them over a low heat with some brown sugar, a few quills of good cinnamon, a few cloves and a couple of star anise. Splash in some fresh lemon juice and a pinch of salt and allow the apples to cook covered for fifteen minutes or so. Pass the cooked apples through a fine sieve to catch the spices and any seeds and to give the sauce a fine finish. Cool the apple sauce in the fridge and if a large batch is made keep the excess in small containers in the freezer.
Watermelon, Cucumber & Wild Rocket Salad
As a chef I am called upon to create interesting new dishes but often restricted to using the same base produce to do it. One area where this is so is the cold larder, the salad corner of the kitchen. The real challenge for the salad chef is to produce fresh crisp salads that are inviting and which steer away from the suburban tomato and lettuce combinations. Often it is the unexpected combination of familiar flavors that makes the difference to a plate, lifting it to a memorable gastronomic experience. The other consideration for the cold larder chef is that the salads must be bright and colorful enough to tempt the more carnivorous diners.
I recently stumbled across a salad recipe that surprised me with the complexity of its flavor profile but which was a combination of the simplest ingredients. Dice a firm fleshed watermelon, seedless would be best, and very finely slice some red onion. To this add thin slices of continental cucumber and a handful of the freshest wild rocket. Grind a tiny amount of black pepper into the salad to support the peppery nuttiness of the rocket and carefully toss the salad until it is well mixed without breaking the delicate watermelon flesh up too much. Leave this to sit for at least 20 minutes before serving.
Watermelon Cucumber & Rocket Salad
Perfect Mashed Potato
Often the recipes that people have the least understanding of are the simple dishes that we eat every day. It is common for keen cooks to spend a lot of effort on perfecting the focus of a plate, getting a sauce exactly right, grilling the steaks correctly and then the final product is let down by something as basic as over cooked vegetables. One dish that we all cook that suffers from this inattention is mashed potato and yet it is the simplest thing to get it right every time.
When mash fails in its perfect creaminess of texture it is always either overcooked or worse, undercooked. In a pinch undercooked mashed potato can be microwaved and, with luck and a balloon whisk it might be brought back from the brink but overcooked potato will never mash well and will always end up as a sloppy unpalatable mess on the plate. It would be better to add some sautéed bacon and onions, a generous amount of chicken stock and then to blitz the potato slurry into soup- in the kitchen there are never really disasters only menu changes.
So how do we avoid these culinary traps without increasing the attention that we pay to the staple base on the evening dinner plate? Chefs rarely have time to stand over a pot of potatoes and watch them cook and neither does the domestic chef but by following a few simple principals an excellent result can be guaranteed every time. Choose large potatoes, preferably brushed rather than washed and if possible white potatoes rather than red ones. The starch content of these larger white potatoes will ensure that even if they are a bit overcooked that the resultant mash will still be reasonably stiff.
Do not cut the potatoes up too small, halves or quarters, if they are really large, is usually small enough. Too small and they will break down in the cooking water and the soup option will be the only solution. Even whole is better than small dice. The potato should be cooked in plenty of water and I like to start in very hot water with a generous amount of salt dissolved into it. Most importantly is not to cook the spuds to fast. Once they begin to boil reduce the heat and let them simmer more gently, this will cook the potatoes evenly through and make the mash more consistent in texture. Cook the spuds until a small knife penetrates right into them. Once the potatoes are cooked let them drain really well so that the surface of the potato is almost dry and a bit sticky- water only dilutes the flavor of the mash.
Finally, microwave the milk or cream to warm it up before adding it to the potatoes when mashing as it will keep the heat in the spuds, also add plenty of salt and white pepper (so you can’t see the specks). I like to use a whisk to whip my mash but a ricer or a masher is just as good. Either way really work the potato, make sure there are no unpleasant lumps and then mont the potato with knobs of soft butter to give the mash a velvety richness. If you follow this technique you potato will always be mashed to perfection.
Harissa
The photo from this weeks postaweek 2011 photo challenge inspired me to post my favorite chili recipe. Chili is one of those ingredients in cookery that is always sure to cause disputes between chefs. Some love chili some are more cautious, some chefs don’t show it the respect that such a potent flavor deserves. The active elements in chilies that make them hot are substances called capsaicinoids. Predominantly found in the small whitish seeds they are mostly flavorless and react with the pain receptors in the mouth causing perspiration and the release of endorphins and so chili eating is a stimulant to the pleasure centers in the brain. In fact capsaicinoids make the things that they are combined with taste more like themselves, lifting the entire flavor profile of any dish.
In most commercial kitchens it is most common to use chili in the form of a sambal or paste. The Indonesian dark red-umber colored Sambal Olek is the finest chili paste available in the world but it is very easy to make a chili paste from fresh Birdseye chilies that is almost as robust. But my favorite way to use these hot little chilies is to make Harissa. This traditional North African ingredient is a staple part of the diet in many places and there are as many recipes for it as there are cooks but for my own I like to develop a complex profile that will go well with a wide variety of meats or give a pasta or cous cous a real kick. I start by trimming the stalks from about half a kilo of chilies and putting them into a food processor with a dozen cloves of garlic, some salt, white pepper and ground cumin. When this is an even paste I add a large bunch of fresh coriander leaves and stems, juice from 3 or 4 lemons and enough olive oil to bring the paste together to a fairly fine consistency.
This Harissa paste will keep in jars in the refrigerator for several months (at least) and can be used to marinate chicken, fish, lamb or beef as well as added to tagines to give them the necessary heat and depth of flavor. I like to blend a tablespoon of Harissa into a dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar to give salads a sharp finish on the palate. However you use it you just have to remember to use it carefully and don’t ever rub your eyes.
Never Fail Short Sweet Crust Pastry
As a traditional pan chef I am rarely expected to have the same skills as a specialist like a patisserie chef but on the occasion that I need to venture out of the comfort zone in that direction I like to have good solid recipes to follow. One recipe that I have used since I first began to cook is my Bulletproof Sweet Pastry which came out of a professional cookbook used to train apprentices. Its simplicity and the ease with which it can be multiplied to make a larger batch has made it a reliable old favorite in my battery.
The finished pastry
Put two cups of plain flour, almost a cup of white sugar and 100g of butter or margarine into a food processor and blend it to the consistency of fine crumbs before adding a whole egg and then 2 or 3 tablespoons of cold water, just enough to bring the mixture together as a paste. Rest this pastry in the refrigerator for half an hour before using it. Butter gives a richer but softer pastry whereas margarine or shortening will give a lighter, crisper finish. It is in fact the shortening in this class of pastries that cause them to be called “short pastry”. This recipe is a classic Pate Sucre but with the omission of the sugar and the addition of salt it works very well for savory pies.
Cinnamon
Of all of the spices that I keep in my larder I think that I like cinnamon the most. I love the smell of a freshly opened bag of ground cinnamon and the festive smell of compotes or patisserie that features this spice.
I find that cinnamon is the most versatile flavor, adding richness and a glorious aroma to everything that it is used in. Cinnamon goes with so many styles of dish, savory as well as sweet, and adds a lift to coffee or cocoa. Almost every cake or cookie recipe calls for cinnamon but it is equally as tasty with meats, especially game meats like venison or pheasant. A stick of cinnamon in the roasting pan with a joint of meat, especially lamb, gives the jus a subtle flavor that draws out the flavor of the meat.
But, as with all things culinary, the end result is determined by the quality of the produce that is used and cinnamon is one ingredient that this can be truer of than others. Generally, on our supermarket shelves, what is sold to the consumer as cinnamon, or Dutch cinnamon, is really cassia. It is common practice to blend the much cheaper cassia with cinnamon but the result is an entirely less satisfying product.
Cinnamon is the bark from Cinnamomum verum a small tree that is grown in Sri Lanka. Only the finest inner bark is harvested giving the quills their brittle texture. Cassia bark is always thicker (2-3 mm) and comes from Cinnamomum aromaticum, often called Chinese cinnamon and whilst is has a slightly stronger flavor it is also harsher and lacks the genuine fineness of cinnamon flavor. It also has higher quantities of a moderately toxic component called coumarin that has come into question lately. Even so, genuine Ceylon Cinnamon is not that much more expensive and can be bought online at http://ceylon-cinnamon.com/Identify-Cinnamon.htm for about US $26 per pound.
How to Poach the Perfect Egg
Poaching eggs seems to be a culinary skill that eludes many people and yet it is one of the simplest and healthiest ways to prepare them. In my work as a breakfast chef I poach a lot of eggs so I have had the opportunity to test all of the tried and true methods and to debunk many of the myths of this basic technique.
Cookbooks and television chefs will tell you that there are a few tricks to poaching eggs but the true secret is to only ever poach the very freshest eggs. After only a couple of days good eggs will begin to become too stale to poach very well, but fresh eggs will poach perfectly, keeping their shape beautifully and without any of the white separating even in not quite boiling water.
Unfortunately we can rarely count on having eggs straight from the farm and so there are a few steps that everyone can take to make sure of a good result. Acidulate 2 or 3 liters of salted water with 30 or 50 ml of white wine vinegar and bring it to the boil and when the water is at the rolling boil stir the water rapidly with a spoon to create a vortex. Quickly break a couple of eggs into the vortex before it stops spinning and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the eggs until the whites are firm before carefully lifting them on to kitchen paper with a slotted spoon to dry them.
This method generally works for all but the stalest eggs but really the perfect way to poach an egg is to start with a perfect egg.
Barded Beef with Cherries
I love to serve meat with fruit. The sweetness of the fruit acts as a relish or a condiment to the charred smoky flavor of roasted or grilled meats. As the chill of winter has blown into Melbourne I have begun to cook heartier dishes and adding fruit to a plate is a small reminder of the warm comfortable days of summer. Perhaps the best fruit to cook with is cherries which bring a fulfilling richness to a sauce for game and meat that is among my favorites to prepare.
I begin by barding a butt-end of a beef tenderloin, the cut called a chateaubriand, with long thin strips of streaky bacon. Season this well with salt, pepper, celery salt and fresh thyme before sealing it in a hot pan of duck fat. When the beef is evenly browned put it into a fast oven for half an hour or so. When the beef is medium rare take it out of the oven and set it aside to rest while the sauce is made in the hot pan.
Begin by deglazing the pan with a shot of good port wine (or a heavy red if needs be) and drizzle in some of the syrup that comes in the tin with the cherries. Add about six or seven cherries per portion and allow the sauce to simmer quickly enough to reduce before adding some demi-glace to thicken the sauce. If you do not have demi-glace then make up some instant gravy and add that. Remember to put all of the juices from the beef back into the sauce. Serve with roasted vegetables and a large glass of claret.
Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup
Pumpkin soup is without a doubt the most popular potage that I cook in restaurants. Of all the soups that I can make I can always be certain that a good pumpkin soup will always sell out. This fact is not isolated to my kitchen but is a well known phenomenon throughout my industry, and this broad popularity means that every café has its own spin on this simple soup. Some chefs will roast the pumpkin before using it in soup on order to caramelize the sugars and develop the flavors of the pumpkin. Different spice profiles that feature nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise, curry or any other number of other sharp flavors can impart a chef’s personal twist to this dish. Classic French pumpkin soup that starts by sweating off the mirepoix vegetables mixes potato with the pumpkin to give the soup a smooth creamy texture and makes a full flavored, robust potage.
My favorite version of pumpkin soup uses Kent or Butternut pumpkins with about half their weight in sweet potatoes. Start by sweating some diced onion in a heavy bottomed soup kettle. Season the onions with plenty of salt and white pepper, add some ground cumin and a generous amount of ground coriander, then, finally, some freshly grated ginger. Stir this over a high heat until it is strongly aromatic then put in the pumpkin and sweet potato in large chunks and toss them in the seasoned onions. Cover this with good chicken stock and simmer until the vegetables are thoroughly cooked. Allow soup to rest until cool.
When the soup has cooled enough, puree and pass it through a fine sieve then return it to the pot. Add some more stock to adjust the consistency if necessary and return the soup to the boil. I like to serve this soup in deep bowls garnished with fresh cream and cracked pepper.
Kipfler Potatoes
From amongst the vast array of potatoes available to the chef there is one that stands out above the rest- Kipflers. Once, these long, egg-shaped tubers were the darling spud of celebrity chefs and starred on five-star menus, such was the regard that they were held in by gastronomes across the planet. Now they are in plentiful supply and so they are available to the public for a few cents more per kilo than the more familiar Coliban or Desiree varieties, offering the home cook the option of preparing Kipflers with their Sunday roast.
Kipflers are smallish potatoes, meaning that they are more work to peel than the larger and more common spuds, but their creamy firm flesh has an earthy flavor that makes it worth the effort. I love them simply mashed with lashings of cream and nobs of butter, served garnished with finely cut chives or crisped bacon lardons but to really enjoy their flavor I like to cut the Kipflers into quarters lengthwise and then to steam them in chicken stock until they are just tender. After letting them drain thoroughly (until they are quite dry and sticky) I saute them in a simmering pan of clarified butter with simple salt and freshly ground black pepper seasoning, gently tossing them in the butter until they are golden brown. Serve them on the side of any grilled meat dish to enjoy potatoes they way that they tasted when we were kids.
Kipfler Potatoes
Mushroom
Here in Australia we have just entered winter for the year and so we are at the peak of our mushroom season. All through the streets of my suburb there are mushrooms popping up on front lawns although they are mostly the noxious yellow-stainers that look deceptively like the edible mushrooms sold in the supermarket. There are so many recipes for mushrooms that it is hard to pick a favorite. From common field mushrooms I like to make a soup that simmers the dark-gilled giants in chicken stock with a base of caramelized onions and handfuls of chopped parsley. To thicken this potage I use stale bread that I soak in the mushroom broth, blitzing the mixture to a smoothish consistency before serving it piping hot with a dollop of cream and a couple of pieces of grilled rye bread on the side.
Perhaps my favorite variety of mushroom (at the minute) is Portobello, a dark-skinned mushroom with creamy white flesh and a robust earthy flavor. I like to sauté the sliced mushrooms in a generous measure of clarified butter until the flesh is a lovely caramelized color and then serve them on top of a char grilled piece of fillet steak. They are also excellent roasted whole, drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and finished with roughly chopped thyme. Served on the side of a breakfast plate of bacon and eggs they are the perfect start to the day.
Cooking for Real People
Since I last blogged I have returned to my wandering as an agency chef. I am one of those chefs that restaurants and other kitchens use when their full-time cook is sick or takes a day off. So as a consequence I have been wandering from kitchen to kitchen, sometimes for a day, sometimes longer, and occasionally cooking for a private party or amongst a big brigade at a major event like the Grand Prix or the Melbourne Cup. Often enough this kind of work is a challenge but for a lot of it I just use those basic skills that belong to every chef. A lot of the kitchens that employ my services want me for my reliable knife skills, my ability to produce simple food quickly and inexpensively for their staff cafeteria or to make beautiful plates for their boardroom lunches.
Most people think of chefs having glamorous jobs in sumptuously appointed restaurants, growling orders at the subservient floor staff while they produce plates loaded with culinary wonders the like of which cannot be produced by any but the most practiced domestic cooks. Those jobs do exist, and they are fun, exhilarating and challenging, but for every one of those prima donna chefs there are dozens of others that turn up to their kitchens every day just to cook ordinary food for ordinary people. In the end this is what it really means to be a chef.
Duck Fat
The fat that was rendered from one duckling
Cooking is all about flavor. The craft of cheffing is to build a broad but harmonious flavor profile into all of his dishes. This means that as well as a sound technical knowledge of the plastic qualities of food, a chef must also have a comprehensive palate that understands how to compose several flavors into a single profile that is appropriate to the dish being cooked. We are all familiar with various basic flavor combinations such as cinnamon and apples, bacon and onions and so on, and perhaps the greatest difference between a chef and an amateur cook is the familiarity that the professional gastronome has with a wide range of base flavors. One such ingredient that forms an excellent foundation upon which to build delicious profiles and which is out of the usual realm of the home cook is duck fat.
Duck fat gives dishes a moreish savory flavor into which a broad range of herbs and spices can be easily assimilated whilst adding a fine richness to bland staple ingredients like potatoes or chicken breast-meat. My favorite thing to cook in duck fat is bacon and eggs with crispy fried bread. Duck fat is readily available in butchers and delicatessens but my preference is to render my own fat from a plump duckling that is about six months old.
So, today I went to a duck farm and selected a lovely fat Muscovy drake which, after I had slaughtered and dressed, was slow roasted at about 160°C for a couple of hours. I placed the bird on a rack over a deep tray to catch the rendered fat which I poured off at intervals to keep it clean, using just enough of the rendered fat to baste the duck throughout the cooking process. Of course the roast duckling was delicious, served with roasted potato and carrots, steamed sweet corn on the cob and broccoli, and napped with rich gravy, but it is the duck fat that I collected that will continue to add spectacular flavor to everything that I cook with it that is the real culinary treasure.
Spanokoppita
A chef’s responsibility is for the whole restaurant, from front to back of house and every detail in between. In a formal restaurant setting the chef will prepare and plate all of the food in the kitchen and the wait staff will usually only finish a minimum of the dishes that go out. Cafe staff, on the other hand, usually have a hand in plating food and most cafes have a range of heat and serve dishes ready for quick service. Quiches, pies, pastries, sandwiches and focaccia with a myriad of fillings will all be ready for the front of house staff to heat and serve as they are ordered, especially during the busy lunch trade that most small cafes rely on. Quick service is the key to success.
One of my favorite recipes for this style of service, a tasty dish that is quick to make and which usually turns over very quickly is Spanokoppita, a Greek Spinach and Fetta pie. I begin mine with a good quality Greek Fetta Cheese which I crumble with my fingers before adding a liberal amount of crushed garlic, fresh oregano, white pepper, shredded spinach, an egg or two and enough breadcrumbs to bind the mixture together. Once the filling is complete I lay out a sheet of Filo pastry, liberally brush it with clarified butter, carefully lay over another sheet of pastry and brush it with butter along one half before folding the pastry in half long-wise. At the bottom of this strip of Filo I place a handful of the Spinach and Fetta mix and then fold the pastry over it in a triangle shape, turning the pastry over and over to make a triangle shaped parcel. I brush this with more butter and then sprinkle it with sesame seeds to garnish it before baking it in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes until the Filo is puffed up, crisp and golden brown. These parcels can be re-heated in the microwave and the pastry can then be re-crisped by a minute or two in a hot oven before the Spanokoppita is served, usually with a freshly made Greek Salad.
Scotched Quail Eggs by Johnno
Throughout my career as a chef I have worked in over one hundred kitchens with hundreds of chefs and, inevitably, I have shared much and learned much from a lot of really great cooks. John O’Hare, a colleague from a kitchen that I was in a few years ago has been following the Wandering Chef and he wrote to tell me that he was really diggin’ my blog. This took me back to the kitchen that we shared a few years ago and to some of the food that we made together there. His grilled Zucchini and Haloumi fritters were a staple of the menu but the dish that I really remember him for was the Scotched Quail Eggs.
We boiled a dozen of the tiny speckled eggs and then, after carefully peeling the shells off of the whites we encased them in a mixture of pork and veal mince, lightly seasoned and, from memory, with a small amount of garlic, thyme and chopped parsley, all bound together with a small amount of egg and breadcrumbs before the chicken egg sized meat encased quail eggs were put through a mix of dukkah crumbs a couple of times and then gently deep fried until golden and crisp. I would serve them with a delicate salad of butter or mignonette lettuce, cherry tomatoes, thin slices of cucumber and julienne red capsicum, dressed with a simple lemon juice vinaigrette and perhaps some whole egg mayonnaise.
Roast Turkey
Christmas Turkey
Christmas dinner is all about celebration food. We cook things that are not usually on the day to day menu and, for the domestic chef this often presents the greatest culinary challenges. One thing that seems to prove difficult for even experienced cooks is roasting a turkey. Traditionally Christmas dinner has been a feast of roast meats like pork and ham but more often now the center of the Christmas table is a turkey, but all too often the result is a dry unpalatable bird. This doesn’t need to be the case as turkey, like all large birds, is relatively easy to cook and just requires a little more care than roasting a chicken or a duck. I like to roast turkeys that are about 7-8 Kg as this size bird seems to cook evenly with the dark meat of the legs cooking at about the same rate as the breasts. In larger birds often the breasts will dry out and shrink whilst the legs will be undercooked and chewy. To get around this, and to produce a moist plump bird for the table the chef has to baste the turkey regularly throughout the cooking process. I begin by making a stuffing from day old bread, celery, onion, fresh chopped parsley and thyme, and a generous amount of pork and veal sausage mince. When this is stuffed inside the turkey I cover the top of the breasts with a piece of muslin (I usually use a chux cloth) that has a thick slab of butter inside of it. The bird goes into a hot oven (200°C) for about half an hour before the temperature is reduced to 175°C and later perhaps even slower to finish the meat without too much dry heat. The key to the process is continual basting, about once every 40 minutes to begin and more often as the turkey gets closer to being cooked. Whilst there is no set amount of time that it takes to cook the bird I calculate about 40 minutes per kilogram of turkey with about an extra half an hour making a 7 kilogram bird about a 5 ½ – 6 hour process. During the process it is important to lift the muslin cloth at the basting times to ensure that it doesn’t stick to the skin and to take it off for the last half an hour so that the skin over the breasts has a chance to go brown and crispy. Finally, before carving the turkey it is vital to rest the bird for at least 20-30 minutes to relax the meat. Using this method I have had juicy plump birds for my table for many, many years.
Corn Chowder
One of my most beloved vegetables isn’t actually a vegetable at all- it is a grain. Corn is a staple of the diets of millions around the world; its yellow kernels have been adapted to a variety of different cooking methods from humble grits, to the perennial Tuscan polenta. Even just steamed fresh corn on the cob is has a fantastic flavor, salted and served with a knob of butter it can’t be beaten. As good as it is as a vegetable on the plate with a thick grilled steak or chicken fillet, my favorite way to eat sweet corn is as a soup. Whilst I admire the deftness and finesse of Chinese sweet corn soups, made with aromatic chicken broth, finely sliced spring onions and thickened with egg yolk, I prefer to make a creamy Corn Chowder. In a heavy bottom soup pot I put a generous amount of a light vegetable oil and sauté some diced onion, crushed garlic, finely diced green capsicum and a mix of sweet paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, garlic powder, fine black pepper and salt. Next, I strip the kernels off of a few cobs of corn using a sharp knife and add these to the pot before pouring in a couple of liters of chicken stock. I cook this slowly for half an hour or so, until the corn is tender, before adding a couple of liters of full cream milk. Scalding this mixture, being careful not to boil it, I thicken it with some roux, adjust the seasoning, add finely sliced spring onions and chopped parsley and serve it garnished with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of paprika.
Breakfast
Breakfast Essentials?
Sunday is breakfast day. At every cafe that I have cooked in Sunday is a day of long late breakfasts. All day breakfasts usually peter out at around 11 on every other day but on Sunday they really do go on all day. They have also become more sophisticated over the years and no longer are a couple of fried eggs with bacon and a grilled slice of tomato considered to be the staple. Now the eggs have to be free range, poached (never hard), and there must be sautéed mushrooms, wilted spinach, the ubiquitous hash brown to go with the double smoked bacon, breakfast pork sausages and slow roasted Roma tomatoes. And, the breakfast menu has grown to include omelet, frittata, pancakes, French toast, Eggs Benedict (and Florentine) all as staple fare. All of this requires the greatest skill from a chef who must be able to time each plate perfectly and be able to make delicate sauces like Hollandaise quickly and consistently all whilst keeping track of all of the nuances of the breakfast dockets which all chefs will agree are the most complicated to read. Trying to be different on the menu when the expectations of the punters are so standard isn’t easy. Finding things in your repertoire that aren’t based on eggs and that have more flavor than oatmeal porridge is a difficult task for even experienced chefs. One of my favorite breakfast plates is a tropical fruit salad of mango, paw paw, pineapple, star fruit and so on, served with cinnamon-sugar toast that had been grilled until it becomes crispy as the sugars caramelize and finished with fresh ricotta drizzled with a dark, strong flavored honey. But my favorite breakfast would be eggs en-cocotte. Fill a ramekin with layers of cream cheese, Smoked Salmon, julienne spinach and top it with two very fresh free range eggs. Grind fresh black pepper over it and place in a hot oven until the eggs are cooked (but not hard). Finish with a nap of Hollandaise and a pinch of finely chopped parsley and serve with thick slices of baguette bread that has been grilled to golden in a pan of olive oil.
Technique
One of the differences in the way that chefs look at cooking is that rather than focusing on recipes we tend to concentrate on techniques. Learning a technique of cookery allows a chef to create new combinations of ingredients and flavors whilst being confident that his method will work and that his plate will equal his vision of it. Every cooking method that is employed can be classed as a technique; roasting, boiling and braising are all basic techniques of cookery generally, but when chefs speak of technique they usually mean something more complex. Sometimes, learning a technique will enable a chef to replicate foreign cuisines as is the case with learning the methods of Asian wok cookery which has one reasonably complex method applied to a myriad of different dishes with only the ingredients having been switched around. One example that I remember was the way that the wok cooked beef dishes were prepared in a Thai restaurant that I once worked in. The Thai chef used a searing hot wok, into which he splashed some peanut oil, garlic, chili, ginger and long thin strips of fillet beef. This base mixture was then embellished upon with fresh julienne basil and oyster sauce to make the Beef and Basil dish, or with added garlic and black bean sauce to make the Garlic Beef and so on for another six or seven variations- all using the same technique. Pasta cookery is the same with the one pan technique being employed to produce dozens of different sauces.
A technique that I have always loved using involves finishing escallops of meat in a sticky-sweet yet savory sauce that coats the meat as a moorish glaze. Into a very hot pan I usually start with some finely diced onions which I sweat until they become clear before adding thin slices (escallops) of white meat, usually pork but chicken and possibly even veal would work this way. When the medallions are seared on either side I season them with salt and pepper, deglaze the pan with red wine, add a generous spoonful of quince jelly, a squeeze of lemon juice, fresh thyme and enough stock to dissolve the jelly into. I let this reduce quickly until the sauce becomes thick and syrupy, almost until it burns for a char-sui kind of flavor profile. On top of mashed potato with some steamed asparagus and washed down with a glass of spicy dry red wine- I think that I will have some for my dinner tonight.
Pork Chops in Quince Glaze
Tiger Prawns
Tiger Prawns
One of my favorite things to cook (and to eat) is Prawns. Here in Australia we are generally well supplied with Tiger Prawns from Thailand, Penaeus monodon. The simplicity of cooking Tiger Prawns and their adaptability to different styles of dishes and to different cuisines makes them a staple of most menus. Although fresh prawns are always the best quality, and it is worth a trip to Melbourne’s Victoria Market to get them, the frozen product available to chefs is very nearly as good. Individually quick frozen (IQF) prawns come in a variety of sizes, graded according to the quantity of prawns per pound, so the kilogram bags of 21-25 IQF Tiger Prawns that I buy has roughly 50-60 prawns in it.
For myself I prefer the simplest cooking methods for these sweet filleted crustaceans, usually just grilling them in a little olive oil until they begin to turn opaque white before grinding fresh black pepper and squeezing some lime juice over them and eating them straight from the grill. Garlic prawns seems a perennial favorite but I prefer a creamy Mustard Prawns- in a hot pan, splash a little olive oil, a measure of freshly crushed garlic and, as it begins to sweat throw in 8 or 10 big black Tiger Prawns and let them begin to cook. Before they change color to their vibrant orange striped white cooked color, stir in a generous spoonful of Dijon Mustard, salt and pepper. Cook this a little to release the flavors and aroma of the mustard before deglazing the pan with a splash of dry white wine, adding a good dollop of cream and some fresh thyme. Allow the sauce to reduce until it coats the prawns evenly then serve them straight away on a bed of herb fragrant pilaf with some crisp garden salad and a cold beer.
Fresh Produce
Chefs generally follow the principal that good food begins with good quality ingredients. Professional kitchens are stocked with some of the finest, and most expensive, ingredients like exotic spices, boutique cheeses, oils and vinegars from a wide variety of sources, but at the base of it all is good fresh produce.
Today I visited my egg supplier. Their chicken farm is several kilometers up a steep and winding dirt road into a beautiful eucalyptus forest near Guildford in Central Victoria. After what appears to be a very long drive into the bush suddenly there is a clearing and at the end of the track leading to their small farmhouse is a yard full of chickens. And, not just any chickens; these chickens produce the best eggs that I have ever been able to get my hands on.
The eggs are sold to me as 60g (2oz) eggs but are invariably larger. The shells are hard and thick and have a satisfying tan hue, whilst the yolks are the brightest yellow. The chickens that lay these magnificent eggs are genuine free-range birds (delicious in themselves) and I have often found them a mile or so away from the chicken-yard foraging for wild food for themselves. The chicken farmers grow their own organic green feeds for the chickens and buy in organic wheat for them as well. This is how genuine free-range chickens are farmed and the results speak for themselves.
Tiramisu
Of all of the cakes that are in my culinary repertoire the most consistently popular would have to be Tiramisu. This rich conglomerate of Mascarpone and cream, flavored with the vanilla liqueur Marsala, spread over layers of coffee soaked sponge fingers finds its way onto the menu in small cafés as well as elaborate restaurants everywhere simply because of its broad appeal.
The name of the dish, Tiramisu, is Italian for ‘me and you’ and it is traditionally a dolce that is shared by lovers. The recipe that I use came from a young Italian chef that I worked with many years ago at Geppetto Trattoria named Orosco and I have been told many times that it is the best Tiramisu that my diners have ever tasted.
I start by separating 3 or 4 eggs and beating the whites until they are stiff. Next, a mixture of Mascarpone, cream, sugar and Marsala is whipped until it forms stiff peaks. The sponge fingers are dipped into a bath of coffee, more Marsala and the egg yolks (for added richness) before being layered and cobbled together with the cream mixture to make the cake. Finally, I top the whole thing with curls of tempered chocolate and dust the cake with cocoa powder to finish it.
Tiramisu
The Wandering Chef
Chefologist 