Happy Australia Day

Australia Day is a national holiday celebrated in Australia on the 26th of January. It could also be referred to as Invasion Day by the indigenous Aboriginal community, as it marks the claiming of the country by Captain Cook and the British Empire. It is a day where we celebrate all things Australian (or things that we claim as Australian but actually originated in New Zealand like the Pavlova).

For my recipe this week I wanted to use a native Australian spice, and decided upon strawberry gum. According to its description, strawberry gum is a ground native Australian herb,  with a flavour profile of berries, passionfruit and sweet spices (and I can attest this is a fairly accurate description). You can order ground strawberry gum via Herbie’s Spices online, or it is stocked in many delis and gourmet food stores.

I used store-bought Anzac biscuits for my cheesecake base. I will share a home-made recipe for Anzac biscuits in April closer to Anzac day. If you can’t track down Anzac biscuits, feel free to use any sweet store-bought biscuit you like. I used Green and Black’s white chocolate because it is organic, fair trade and has lovely flecks of real vanilla pod seeds through it.

Strawberry Gum, Passionfruit and White Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 300mls cream
• 250g cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons ground strawberry gum
• 200g white chocolate
• 250g Anzac biscuits
• 100g butter
• 6 passionfruit

Method

• Add the biscuits to your food processor and blitz into crumbs
• Add the butter and blitz again to combine, the mixture should look like wet sand
• Press the biscuit base into your tin

• Refrigerate until firm
• Add the cream to a saucepan and gently heat until steaming but not boiling
• Add the white chocolate and strawberry gum to the hot cream, the heat from the cream should be enough to melt the chocolate and infuse the strawberry gum (if the chocolate doesn’t melt, return to a very low heat and stir continuously until melted)

• Cool your white chocolate and cream mixture in the refrigerator until it firms and becomes a ganache
• Whip the ganache with beaters to make it light and fluffy
• Add the cream cheese and the fruit and pulp from 3 passionfruit to the ganache mixture

• Whip the cream cheese and passionfruit until incorporated into the ganache
• Spoon the cream cheese ganache mixture on top of your biscuit base and spread to create a smooth, even top
• Refrigerate until you are ready to serve
• Top with the pulp from your remaining 3 passionfruit, remove your cheesecake from its tin and it is ready to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite Australian inspired recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Thai rockmelon salad

My passion for cooking has been influenced by various sources. My mother is an amazing cook and taught me how to navigate my way around the kitchen from a young age. Mum is currently enjoying teaching my two-year-old niece how to cook biscuits so I am guessing I started helping in the kitchen at a similar age. Another early influence was my first weekend job as a kitchen hand working at a local guesthouse in the Blue Mountains called Pegum’s (no longer in operation). I very quickly branched out from stacking the dishwasher to helping with plating up the food and being in charge of the deep fryer. This recipe is trying to re-create a Thai rockmelon salad I remember from my Pegum’s days.

The shrimp paste in this recipe has been listed as optional, because it is one of those ingredients you need to be brave and get past the smell to use. You should be able to track shrimp paste down in the Asian section of your supermarket. Shrimp paste has an overpowering smell, and must be cooked before use; once it is roasted the flavour isn’t as strong. The SBS Food website suggests to wrap a small amount of shrimp paste in foil and put into a hot oven or hold over flame using tongs to cook. Then cool and crumble and it is ready to use.

Rockmelon is known as cantaloupe to Americans. Feel free to experiment using other melons or fruits. The dressing would be delicious on shredded green mango, this suggestion is inspired by a green mango salad I tried at a food court in Chang Mai during my first trip to Thailand. Green mangos can be tricky to find, but you could try an Asian supermarket.

Thai Rockmelon Salad

Ingredients:

• 100g roasted peanuts
• 1 bunch of coriander
• 4 spring onions
• 4 birds eye chillies (or to taste)
• 2 large or 3 small limes
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon roasted shrimp paste (optional – see notes above)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 rockmelon

Method

• Chop the rockmelon into quarters. Scoop out the seeds and peel off the skin. Chop into chunks.
• Zest and juice the limes. Add the juice and zest to a blender.
• Chop the ends and dark green parts off the spring onions.
• Wash the coriander thoroughly. Pick the leaves off the coriander and finely chop. Reserve two of the coriander roots for the sauce.
• Add the garlic, chilis, fish sauce, spring onions, roasted shrimp paste, two coriander roots and half the peanuts to the blender.

• Blend until everything is combined.
• Add the remaining peanuts and blend very briefly. You want to retain some peanut texture. You will end up with a thick paste.
• Scape the sauce out of the bender onto the chopped rockmelon. Stir to coat the rockmelon.

• Add the chopped coriander and stir to combine. You can either eat straight away or store for up to a day or two. Enjoy.

What is your favourite Thai inspired recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

Indulgent risotto

Under the Christmas tree I was given some delicious new ingredients to experiment with. The ingredient I was most excited about was some beautiful saffron my mum purchased from a local farmers market produced by Capertee Valley Saffron. The producer recommended toasting the saffron in a frying pan with a sheet of baking paper in the bottom to protect the delicate saffron from direct heat, and to toast the saffron threads to release their aroma and flavour then add to warm water or stock before using in your recipe. I had to hold down my grease proof paper to help the paper and saffron strands to come into contact with the bottom of the fry pan. Ian Hemphill, of Herbie’s Spices fame, in his book ‘Spice Notes and Recipes’ provides many tips on saffron, including that oil will actually prevent saffron from releasing its colour and flavour and most of the colour and flavour will be released into your liquid within 10 minutes so there is no need for long periods of infusing.

Amoungst my herbalist’s recommendations to me last year, she suggested I increase my intake of crab and tarragon so I was trying to think of ways to experiment in the kitchen. I’ve never really cooked with crab (or eaten much of it for that matter), so was feeling a bit nervous about how to incorporate more of it into my diet. I consulted my local fish monger about the different varieties of crab they currently had in stock, and was recommended I try spanner crab (which proved to be quite reasonably priced at $14.99 per kilogram). Taking my fish monger’s advice, I purchased two cooked spanner crabs to make into a risotto. Having no idea what to do with the crab when I got home, I consulted a You Tube clip that gave me instructions on how to pick the meat out of the crab. If you have time to spare you could use the discarded crab legs and claws to enhance your stock for the risotto. If you are not feeling quite so brave to tackle a whole crab, you may be able to purchase fresh or frozen picked crab meat from your fish monger.

If you take notice of the cooking shows on TV and celebrity chefs, you may have been scared off attempting to cook risotto because it has a reputation as difficult to get right. I think risotto is a dish that is really down to personal preference, how liquidy you want the finished product, how al dente or cooked you prefer the rice. Feel free to vary the quantities of liquids to get the texture you prefer. The only advice I will offer is if you cook the rice too fast or over too high a heat, the grains won’t cook through; if you cook the rice too slowly, the rice will become too soft and gluggy. Mastering risotto will be a great thing to add to your cooking repertoire, as the variations only limited by your imagination.

I called this indulgent risotto because crab, saffron and tarragon are generally considered to be luxurious ingredients. I’ve been quite generous with the use of tarragon in this recipe, using it more like a vegetable than a flavour enhancer. If you want an extra rich risotto, you could add a little cream or butter at the end of the cooking instead of, or as well as, the white wine.

Crab, Saffron and Tarragon Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
• 4 spring onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 cup of arborio rice
• pinch of saffron (about 15 threads)
• 2 cups of warm water
• 2 teaspoons vegetable stock powder (I use vegeta brand)
• 2 limes
• Meat from 2 or 3 spanner crabs
• 2 tablespoons chopped tarragon
• 50 to 100ml white wine (or to taste)

Method

• Finely chop the spring onions, using the white part and as much of the green as you like (I generally keep chopping for another 5 to 10 cm past the white part).
• Finely chop or crush the garlic.
• Zest and juice the limes.

• Line a frying pan with grease proof paper. Add the saffron on top of the grease proof paper and toast over a medium heat until the aroma and flavour is released.
• Add the toasted saffron to the warm water, add the lime juice and the vegetable stock powder. Stir to combine.
• Discard the grease proof paper you used to toast the saffron from the frying pan.
• Heat the pan over a medium high heat and add the coconut oil the chopped spring onions, garlic and rice. Cook until the rice is coated in oil and the onions are slightly softened.

• Add a little stock (approximately 100mls at a time) to the fry pan and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Repeat until all of the stock has been absorbed. Taste to test the rice, it should be slightly too firm but almost ready.

• Add the white wine to the fry pan, continue cooking until the wine bubbles then turn off the heat.
• Add the crab meat, the lime zest and chopped tarragon.

• Stir to combine and let the residual heat warm the crab and wilt the tarragon. Your risotto is ready to serve. Enjoy.

What is your favourite risotto recipe? Has this post inspired any new ideas?

New Year Resolution

Like a lot of people at this time of year, I am making an effort to eat a healthy and balanced diet.

I used almond milk infused with spices as the base for my sorbet. I let the spices infuse overnight, then strained the almond milk before churning in the ice cream machine. I have been wanting to experiment with almond milk for a while now, and it is cholesterol and lactose free. The sorbet is lovely served with your favourite summer fruit, I used mango. You could even eat this for breakfast on a hot day without feeling guilty.

I have previously made a similar sorbet using a tin of coconut milk to infuse the spices, then adding 100mls of natural yoghurt when churning in the ice cream machine. If the recipe is not sweet enough for you, feel free to add a little sugar when heating the almond milk to infuse the spices.

Liquid glucose can be found in the baking section of the supermarket and will provide a little sweetness and help create a silky smooth sorbet.

Spiced Almond Sorbet

* Please note you will need an ice cream machine for this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 500mls almond milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cloves
• 2 green cardamom pods, crushed
• Small piece of fresh ginger, about the size of your thumb nail
• 3 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 vanilla pod, split to release the seeds
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons of liquid glucose
• Mango, to serve

Method

• Put the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, vanilla, star anise, nutmeg, liquid glucose and almond milk in a saucepan.

• Heat on a low heat until the almond milk is hot (just starting to steam) but not boiling.
• Remove the pan from the heat, and allow the mixture to cool. Cover and allow to chill in the fridge.
• Strain the infused almond milk to remove the spices.
• Pour the chilled and strained almond milk into an ice cream machine and churn.

• Transfer ice cream to a container and put into the freezer.
• To serve, put into fridge to soften slightly up to half an hour before serving. Serve with mango chunks or your favourite summer fruit. Enjoy.

What is your favourite summer fruit? Has this post inspired any new ideas?