Spring Salmon

As spring careers into summer, and the slow cooker edges back into the cupboard, I’m starting to think about summer recipes and salads – especially at the end of long hot days in the garden.  Being the organised type, I’m also starting to think about this year’s Christmas Day menu… and this recipe is a definite contender.

This recipe can expand or contract to fit the number of people needing to eat.  You could poach one slice of salmon and have a lovely meal for one, or any number from there.

Baked Salmon with Grape and Hazelnut Salad

Serves 8

1 side salmon – around 1-1½ kg

3-4 tbsp Mandy’s horseradish

You can buy your salmon with the pin bones removed, or pay a little less and remove them yourself.  A pair of needle-nosed pliers is handy for removing them, or you can invite Laughykate around for dinner – she’s a dab hand at removing pin bones!

Line a baking tray with foil and place the salmon on top. Add a slosh of wine, a squeeze of lemon, some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until just cooked through.  As the salmon will be covered with the salad when served, you can test with a sharp knife in the thickest part of the salmon.  For this recipe you want it cooked through, but only just – and it will keep cooking after it’s out of the oven, so take it out when still slightly underdone.  Cool and refrigerate.

Grape and hazelnut salad

70-100g fresh hazelnuts, roasted, skinned and roughly chopped (one's mother is very good at the skinning bit, thankfully)
200g seedless green grapes, cut in quarters
1 red chilli, thinly sliced  (optional)
2-3 tbsp baby capers
¼ C each flat-leaf parsley and mint, roughly chopped (feel free to add dill or sorrel)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

This salad is a fantasic combination of flavours and textures.  It would happily accompany other fish dishes or barbequed chicken. Combine the hazelnuts, grapes, chilli and capers.  Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and add the herbs.  Toss the herbed dressing through the salad and allow to sit for up to an hour to let the flavours develop (ok, to climb into a nice glass of chilled rosé or a pre-lunch bubbly).

To assemble

Take the salmon out of the fridge about 1 hour before serving, to allow to come up to room temperature.  Gently slide the salmon onto a serving dish and mop up any extra juices.

Just before serving, cover the salmon with a layer of Mandy’s horseradish sauce.  If you don’t live in New Zealand, you may not have access to this delicious condiment.  You could try to recreate it by combining freshly grated horseradish with a thick (not pouring consistency) mayonnaise.  Alternatively you could use crème fraiche, with some garlic and lemon zest.  The main thing is to have a creamy layer between the salmon and the salad.

Toss the salad and spoon over the salmon, making sure all the juices go with the salad.  Serve with a salad and new potatoes or fresh bread.

I haven’t made it this year, but here’s how it looked for Christmas lunch last year (although I think I served the Mandy's horseradish on the side – can't see it in the picture).

 

Spring Risotto

I somehow managed to get through the first 28-odd years of my life without approaching a risotto pan.  My friend, the best MC, was appalled at this state of affairs, and promptly set about instructing me on the wonderful chemistry of olive oil, onion, wine, rice, stock and parmesan cheese – and all the infinite variants that go with them.  I've spent a fair few evenings since then practicing my risotto technique – nicely assisted by the rule of "one spoonful of stock for the risotto, one sip of wine for the cook".

Last weekend we had the Hunter-Gatherers joining us for dinner, and a risotto seemed like the perfect way to spend time in the kitchen together.

Chicken and Asparagus Risotto

Serves 4

4 chicken thighs, roughly chopped into chunks

1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
olive oil
25g butter
1 cup arborio rice
½-1 cup white wine
1 litre chicken stock (or more)
1 bunch thin-medium asparagus, chopped into inch-long lengths
½ capiscum, diced
juice of 1 lemon
handful or two of freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Lightly brown the chicken in a little olive oil while you bring the chicken stock to the boil.  Once boiled, turn the stock down to simmer.  When the chicken is browned, remove from the pan and drain off any excess fat. 

 

Add the butter and gently saute the onion until soft and translucent, but not browned.  Add the garlic and saute until the smell hits you.  Add the rice and saute gently for 2-3 minutes, taking care that the rice doesn't stick or brown.  Add some more olive oil if you need it.  When the rice is glossy and warmed through, pour in enough wine to reach the top of the rice and allow to bubble vigorously.

Now it's time for the slow dance of adding stock, stirring and sipping.  At this point, you need to adjust the heat to keep a bubbling simmer that will keep the rice absorbing the stock, without being so vigorous that the stock evaporates away without a chance to absorb into the rice.  Too slow and you'll have taken in far too much wine...

Add about ½ a cup of stock at a time, or enough to just cover the rice, stir, and allow to absorb until the top layer of rice is clear of stock.  Stir, and if the stock is mostly absorbed, add the next ladle – you don't want the risotto to dry out at any stage.  This stage can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes, depending on quantities and the attention span of this cook.

When the rice is nearly done, it will still have some "bite", but not be chalky.  Add the asparagus, capsicum, chicken and lemon (and possibly another ladle of stock as the risotto will keep absorbing liquid and I like my risotto to be quite creamy rather than solid).  As soon as the asparagus hits bright green, stir through the parmesan, and plenty of freshly ground pepper.  I usually find that it doesn't need salt.

Serve immediately in warm bowls with a wedge of lemon, a sprinkle of parmesan, a spoonful of pesto and a green salad.

 

Gratuitous photo of happy cat on Mrs H-G's knee...

Dinner Party Club “From Scratch” Menu

It seems that we’ve barely recovered from the Degustation Menu, and it’s time for another dinner party club.  This time, the Urban Gardeners are hosting a “From Scratch” theme, in order to soothe the She-Urban Gardener’s need to make mascarpone from scratch.

We started with the Visitors from Hawkes Bay providing little cheesy biscuits with bubbly – I was clearly so excited by the little cheesy biscuits that photography was forgotten, and then they were gone!  So, little cheesy biscuits are definitely a good thing to make from scratch.

The MOTH was keen to try his hand at pâté [recipe to come], so he made delicious pâté, while I experimented with breads – brioche and spelt.

Some red onion jam completed the entrée.

The main was a delicious beef pie, made by the Bean Counters.

The Creative Cooks rustled up a salad, along with asparagus (some home-grown) and hollandaise made with HOME MADE BUTTER!  Wonderful.

The Urban Gardeners made a wonderful baked cheesecake, with the base biscuits made and then crushed, the mascarpone made from scratch, and raspberry coulis to top it off.

Just to make sure there was no room left, the Visitors from Hawkes Bay added these little morsels to finish us off.

It was another successful evening.  To round things off, our rhodos are flowering... I don't know the name of this one, but it provides a lovely flash of sunshine.

I spy with my little eye…

Something that looks like PIE!

Recently, I decided that I needed to expand my lunchtime cooking repertoire to include pies.  I haven’t made pastry for at least 10 years, so I thought some help would be needed.  Happily, Anne over at SomethingElse To Eat had reviewed Mr Dean Brettschneider’s recently released little gem, so I went out and bought it.  It’s a great book, with lots of pastry variations, as well as wonderful things to put inside the pastry.

The pies I’ve made have done the good thing of ACTUALLY looking like the photos in the book, as well as tasting delicious.  They all tasted great the next day too.  So go along and buy the book, and you too can turn:

Walnuts,

Potatoes, and

Leeks

Into Gooey Leek, Potato and Vintage Cheddar Pie!

 

And then you could whip up a Sausage, Sun-dried Tomato and Potato Tart.

 

Both pies were delicious, matched with a fresh green salad.   I’ll talk about my other new project – perfecting walnut bread another time.

Kids in control

About 25 years ago, I spent a summer teaching my brother and one of my cousins to cook, in exchange for gin (supplied in a glass, with tonic, ice and a squeeze of lemon).  This year, the brother returned the favour – introducing me to pick’n’mix pasta, now firmly at the top of the food requests for Miss 9 and Miss 7.  This is the perfect solution to family food fights – simply provide a wide selection of possible choices and let everyone choose the selection that they like.  It’s also great for birthday party dinners, where there may be long lists of likes/dislikes.  We’ve always found something that everyone will eat.

Pick’n’mix pasta

Dried pasta shapes – we use large spirals or shells, allow at least 60g dried pasta per child – or more if they are looking ravenous!

Sauces

Basil pesto – bought or homemade
Tomato – could be roughly chopped and just warmed, or a rich, thick passata that has spent an hour or more reducing down
Red onion –  thinly sliced, gently sautéed in olive oil, then add 1 tbsp sugar, ½ C white wine, a dash of sherry vinegar and slowly simmer to a thick, sweet paste, add salt and pepper to taste,  it may need a bit more sugar or a dash of lemon juice to reach perfection

Pick’n’mix selections

Protein supply – sliced ham, salami, biersticks, shredded chicken (roast or smoked), smoked fish, anchovies
Veges – cherry tomatoes, corn, capsicum (we generally select for food requiring no cooking!), olives, any other vege quickly blanched
Cheeses – feta, haloumi, parmesan, Colby (for the less adventurous)

Prepare any sauces or veges that require cooking, to be ready at the same time as the pasta is cooked.  Line up the pick’n’mix selections on the kitchen bench and let the children loose.  Replenish bowls, and await the call for seconds.

Deconstructed lamb shanks – the Italian version

A dish of lovely rich lamb shanks, with a warming sauce, nestled up to smooth garlic mash is just delicious.  But if you make a huge supply of lamb shanks, then some variety is needed!  I have several options when faced with this dilemma - one is to head for Morroco via a tagine, the other is to turn to Italy for inspiration.

Italian lamb shanks

Previously prepared deconstructed lamb shanks (½ portion of the full recipe)

1 tin tomato passata (pureed and sieved tomatoes)
½ punnet cherry tomatoes
Basil pesto
Mozzarella cheese
Pasta – preferably pappadelle, but lasanga will also do

Take the frozen portion of lamb shanks out of the freezer a day ahead.   Once defrosted, add ½ - 1 tin of tomato passata, and reheat at 150 C for 1 hour.  Add about ½ punnet of halved cherry tomatoes and cook for another 10 mins, while you cook the pasta.

Here's one I prepared earlier!

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.  Add to the lamb, along with a small amount of the cooking water if the sauce needs to loosen up a bit.  Cover with sliced fresh mozzarella and pop under the grill until the cheese is melted. 

Serve with a generous dollop of basil pesto.

Deconstructed lamb shanks

I love lamb shanks - lovely comforting winter food, cooked long and slow to deliver flavour-filled tender lamb.  However, I find a plate with a whole lamb shank a rather daunting prospect - almost too much to eat, as well as logistically challenging.  So I've taken to deconstructing them, and either serving them traditionally (with mashed potato) or re-invented as an Italian dish [recipe here].

 

Deconstructed lamb shanks

Serves 6-10, depending on the size of the appetites

6 lamb shanks (or a mix of lamb shanks and lamb knuckles)

Spiced flour – ½ C flour with selected spices added – could be 1 tbsp paprika plus salt and pepper, or Moroccan style, Cajun style, whatever you feel like
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 C red or white wine
1 C beef or lamb stock
1 tin tomatoes
Garlic – to taste, I usually go with about 6 cloves, sliced
Thyme, about 1 tbsp roughly chopped leaves (although if the prospect of de-stemming the little devils is too much, I just throw a handful of thyme in and fish the stalks out later)
Rosemary, about 1 tbsp roughly chopped leaves

You can see that this is a cooking frenzy day - lamb shanks in the background, blade steak in the foreground.

Toss the lamb shanks in spiced flour.  Heat a large saucepan and brown the lamb shanks in olive oil.

Place the browned shanks in the cooking dish, along with the thyme and rosemary.

Add another ½ tbsp. of oil to the pan, and cook the onion until just softened.  Add the carrot and celery and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes. 

Add the sliced garlic and cook until the smell hits you.  Add the wine and allow to bubble ferociously for about 1 minute, before adding the tomatoes and stock.  Heat through and pour over the lamb shanks.

The shanks can be cooked in a slow cooker (4 hours on high), or in a covered dish in the oven (2 hours, 160 C).  Turn once during cooking.  At the end of the cooking time, the meat should be coming off the bone, but not cooked to the stage where they can be cut with a spoon – they will be getting some more cooking after deconstruction…

Cool.  Then prepare for some mess… Take each shank out of the sauce and remove the meat from the bone, cutting into rough chunks.  Combine with the sauce.  At this stage, you can put into the dish for final cooking and serving, or it will happily go into the freezer.  I split it in two, one to eat and one to keep.

For a traditional lamb shank dinner, reheat at 150 C for 1 hour.  Taste and adjust for seasoning – I will usually add a good tablespoon of red currant jelly, the juice of a lemon (to counter some of the richness) and some salt and pepper at this stage.

Serve with garlic mashed potatoes and just-cooked green vegetables.

 

First, Catch Your Turkey

I grew up in the country, which meant that my first experiences of turkey involved wild turkeys.  Wild turkeys are generally fairly large, bony birds with a gamey flavour and a tendency to dry out on cooking (not to mention that they arrive intact, feathers and all).  They don’t roast particularly well, and are usually boned out or casseroled.

I’ve only ever cooked bought turkey a couple of times and have been lulled into thinking that they can be treated like chickens.  Despite experimenting with brining, I have been vaguely dissatisfied with the results – too dry and lacking any depth of flavour. 

I recently found myself gazing into the local butcher’s freezer at his supply of turkeys… and before I knew it, the smallest size turkey was coming home with me.  I spent my time on the bus to work thinking about my problems with cooking turkey, and eventually came to the conclusion that the turkey would benefit from braising.  So what does one do when faced with a turkey dilemma?  Turn to the experts!  One little search on the interweb and I discovered a Mr Michael Ruhlman, and his braised turkey recipe.  There wasn't a lot I could do to improve on it, so here it is, with a few little adjustments!

Tender Braised Turkey

1 turkey (that will fit in your braising dish – mine was around 3.5kg)

1 lemon, quartered
2-3 cups white wine
1-2 litres chicken stock
1-2 carrots, roughly chopped
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped (including leaves)
Handful of fresh parsley, thyme and oregano sprigs
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Place the lemon inside the turkey, along with some of the herbs and some onion.  Place the turkey into the braising dish, along with all other ingredients (I only add a pinch of salt at this stage and adjust at the end).  The liquid should be covering about 2/3 of the turkey.

Place into the oven, uncovered.  After 15 minutes, turn down to 180 C.  Baste with cooking liquid about every 15 minutes.  After 1 hour, remove from oven and rest for 5 minutes. It should be nicely browned.

Carefully remove the breast, including the ribcage.  To do this, I used a sharp knife to cut diagonally from the neck across the top of the wings, and then used kitchen scissors to cut around the sides of the breast and lift it off.  Cover the breast and rest.

Return the braising dish to the oven, with the remaining parts of the turkey submerged in the braising liquid.  Cook for another 30 minutes.  Remove the turkey from the braising liquid and scoop out all the flavouring vegetables (I didn't sieve the liquid as I like to have a slightly rustic gravy).  Skim off any visible fat.  Bring the braising liquid to a boil for 5 minutes, then add 1 tbsp cornflour dissolved in a little water, and stir until thickened.  Taste the gravy and adjust to taste – some redcurrant jelly (or cranberry) for sweetness, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Joint the legs and wings and place in the gravy.  Remove the breast meat from the bones, slice, and place in the gravy.  We served it straight away, but it would easily keep for another 30 minutes on a very slow element, or in the turned-off oven.

Serve with potatoes and green vegetables.

Leftovers freeze well in the gravy, and make for a delicious emergency dinner on rice with vegetables!

Food in Focus – Could I be a Food Photographer?

No.

But could I have a lot of fun learning what it is that food photographers do?

Yes.  Especially when Ruth Pretty is cooking the food and I get to eat it!

I had chosen to do the Food in Sharp Focus event as part of Wellington on a Plate – hosted by Ruth Pretty, with guidance from professional photographer and tutor Murray Lloyd.  I thought that I might learn a bit about taking photos for the blog, and have the added bonus of trying some of Ruth’s fantastic food.

Our day started at 9.00am with coffee, a selection of perfectly ripe cheeses, crisp kiwifruit salad, and delicious peach and raspberry pastries.  We settled in with our classmates, sharing stories about the combination of food and photography that brought us together.

Ruth and Murray arrived and, using the peach and raspberry pastries, talked us through the process of photographing food – from choosing the background colour/fabrics and the plate or dish, to the arrangement of the food, the lighting and the careful placement of a fork.  It was an incredibly informative two hours, with plenty of opportunities for questions.  We rounded out our introduction with a slide show of food shots, showing the different ways that food can be highlighted by the use of colour, composition and lighting.

Then we got hands-on – three different “pass-arounds”, an assortment of plates, backgrounds, fabrics and Ruth Pretty’s gardens to use for our own attempts…

Chicken and Pistachio Pies with Cranberry Chutney

 

The allocated 30 minutes was far too short to do justice to the food!  Although I have to say that many of the attendees turned out fantastic photos, so I can only accept operator incompetence on my part.  Happily, we then had to eat the photography subjects, with a drop of bubbly to assist.  Murray chose a selection of photos after each session, and talked us through the successful aspects of our shots.

Next up, was Cold Poached Salmon with Ginger Coriander Dressing and Black Beans.  Yum.  Here, I had a little more success (I think).

I’m not sharing my very much less successful photo of the Oven Braised Pork Shoulder with Cavalo Nero, Apricots and Prunes, as it doesn’t do justice to a spectacularly successful dish.  Along with the salmon, this is definitely on my list of things to cook as soon as possible. Other photographers did manage to take a good photo.

We finished with Baked Rhubarb and Rose Geranium Compote with Little Pavlovas, Whipped Cream and Brandy Snap Cigars.

The verdict?  It was a great day – I learnt a lot about food photography, including how time consuming it is, if you aspire to the perfect photo.  This blog may benefit from some improved composition, but as my first audience is usually sitting at the table waiting while I photograph, it will have to be done in 5 minutes or less!

Dinner Party Club Degustation Menu

A while ago, I introduced you to the founders of the dinner party club – the Urban Gardeners.  The other members include the Visitors from Hawkes Bay, the Creative Cooks, and the Bean Counters (Mr Sporting Bean Counter and Mrs Shopping Bean Counter).  MOTH has been talking for a long time about having a Degustation Menu as a theme, so we sent out a menu that went like this: amuse bouche, vegetable, soup, fish, salad, fowl, palate cleanser, meat, fruit, dessert.

This is what it looked like…

Course 1

Amuse Bouche: Salmon tartare, with crème fraiche in a poppy seed tuile

Wine: Dibon Cava Brut Reserve or Framingham F-Series Viognier 2010 (Marlborough)
By: Mr Visitor from Hawkes Bay

Course 2

Vegetable: “Toad in the Hole” – kumara poached in stock and saffron, with beetroot centre on jus reduction

Wine: Church Road 2009 Cabernet Merlot
By: The Creative Cooks

Course 3

Soup: Iced plum tomato soup with mozzarella and basil oil

Wine: Casco de la Cruz Pedro Ximenez Sherry
By: Your Friendly Blogger and the MOTH

Course 4

Fish: Poached salmon with beetroot relish and basil mayonnaise

Wine: Lawsons Dry Hills 2008 Riesling
By: The Urban Gardeners

Course 5

Salad: Roasted artichoke and pea salad

Wine: Esk Valley Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris 2010
By: The Bean Counters

Course 6

Fowl: Herbed chicken on rocket

Wine: Peter Yealands Pinot Gris 2011

By: Mrs Visitor from Hawkes Bay

Course 7

Palate Cleanser: Raspberry and pinot noir sorbet

Wine: Matahiwi Wairarapa Pinot Noir 2010
By: The Creative Cooks

Course 8

Meat: Eye fillet and blue cheese on parsnip puree, with parsnip crisps and baked onions

Wine: Taylors Clare Valley Merlot 2010
By: Your Friendly Blogger and the MOTH

 Course 9

Fruit: Rhubarb fool

By: The Urban Gardeners
 
Course 10

Dessert: Rich chocolate on crème anglaise

Wine: D’Arenberg Noble Botryotinia F*ckeliana 2011
By: The Bean Counters