Pickled Coleslaw - Jared Ingersoll

NOTE: Blogger has had real issues this this post, I apologise for the haphazard layout!


I was wandering around a bookstore the other day and stumbled upon what looked like an urbancool cookbook called Danks Street Depot. After a flick though, but not really a proper read, I bought it anyway because it looked cool. I judged a book by its cover, how shallow of me. How ever its all turned out ok, since its an awesome book. A more comprehensive review of the book will be on its way due to the fact that I've only made one recipe from it. That one recipe was the pickled coleslaw.


I've never pickled anything before, but I had a couple of cool jars which needed using, too small for flour or rice, way to big for jams. Something pickled was the answer, and since this book has a few recipes for pickles, and they're really simple I figured it was time to have a go.

Ingredients
1 litre cider vinegar
800g sugar (FYI all the sugar in my house...)
1 tbsp celery seeds
1 onion, finely diced
2 green peppers, finely diced
800ml water
1 large white cabbage, shredded
Salt and pepper

Method
To make the brine, pour the vinegar into a large saucepan and add the sugar, celery seeds, onion and green pepper. Bring to the boil for 15 minutes then add the water.


You will need a non-metallic container large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Start by scattering a layer of cabbage, salt and pepper in the base of the container and spoon on some of the brine. Keep going until everything is used . . . you will probably have to really push the cabbage down towards the end.
Put a weight on top of the cabbage to make sure that it stays immersed . . . I use a dinner plate or tray. Cover and allow everything to pickle for at least 24 hours at room temperature or 48 hours in the fridge. This will keep perfectly in your cupboard for a couple of weeks and will last indefinitely in the fridge.


I only had half a head of cabbage so added in 2 carrots chopped into sticks, and a couple of sticks of celery, chopped. These are things I'd put into a normal coleslaw anyway, so figured it would work... I also didnt have an onion *facepalm* its one of those things I always have, but today I had none somehow. I also had no celery seeds and couldnt find any at the shops? Weird. I just went without. So I actually hardly followed the recipe...


I put the carrot in while the water was boiling to soften them up a bit (if you check his recipe for pickled carrots, cauliflower or whatever - it gives you a few tips on how to pickle veges), but left the celery for a bit later - that doesn't really need to be cooked, and I wanted it to retain its crunch.


I had a big glass salad bowl which was perfect for the overnight pickling.

So I left it overnight on the bench, weighed down by a plate... I admit I did some taste tests before it was ready - delicious!

I sterilised the jar (hot soapy water, good rinse, dried in the oven), stuffed the finished product in and covered it with the pickling liquid.


This is a great recipe for pickling... Im definately doing it again. I found it a touch sweet - however Im going to reserve judgement until I make it how its MEANT to be made, with the onion and celery seeds. I may add less sugar next time though, 800g is alot, though I do like the sweetness, and I think its sweet and sour flavour is going to be really versatile.

Ive made a salad with it - rocket, pickles and shaved aged cheddar which was great with some bbq'ed chargrilled chicken.

Its also great as part of an antipasti spread with hummus and grilled flatbreads, which I had for the first time at the Subiaco Hotel, Perth - and LOVED.

I cant wait to make more things from this cookbook such as:
pickled cauliflower, carrots or whatever
cauliflower and caper tapenade
cured cucumbers
orechiette w/broccoli, bitter greens and pecorino
pickled and spiced cherries (for a leg of ham)
poached salmon w/caper and egg dressing (he has 2 other options for the salmon - asparagus w/capsicum jam and salsa verde)
roasted scotch fillet w/ watercress and beetroot salad
slow roasted pork shoulder
bread and bean soup (ribollita)
pasta stuffed with roasted pumpkin, ox heart tomato and pecorino cheese
lamb shoulder and cardamom curry
spag with cauliflower strascicata
Danks st bread and butter pudding (made w/croissants)


Just a small list.......... more to come!


Update!!
I've made the picked again (still without celery seeds - woolies dont stock them Im guessing, as here in the West Aussie countryside, there were none and I couldnt find them in the supermarket in Perth, or in the asian grocer), but this time have used red cabbage, and its a gorgeous pink colour! I love it, and think Ill be making it with red cabbage from now on, because I think it presents alot better - the green cabbage and green capsicum taste great but colourwise, its quite bland. I think the white and khaki green have their place, when you dont need/want such vibrant colour. However the colour added so much to a plate with homemade hummus, beetroot/fetta/mint/celery leaves/pine nut salad and roast pork, that its going to be hard to go back! Have left 2 jars here at mum n dads, so hope they have a hankering for it in the next few weeks!

Urbanspoon

Yay my blogs are now featured on urbanspoon.com a reviewing website for restaurants/bars/cafes, which is pretty cool :)


They're featured on the Jus Burgers, Grill'd Burgers, the Urban Bakehouse, and Tiger Tiger review pages.


Hoping that theres more to come!

Jus Burgers - Leederville

It was a rainy friday afternoon. My bf and I had just gone and gotten the keys to our new house, wandered around, had a look, taken some measurements and then realised we were hungry. Even better, we now live 10minutes from Leederville. After a wander, I dragged him to Jus Burgers. I've been before but he hadnt, and I had a hankering for a good burger (again!). He liked the look of quite a few things, so we decided. Jus Burgers it is!

I went and grabbed a seat while he ordered. The thing with this place is, its TINY. It doesnt take bookings, and you have to line up. Rain, hail or shine, people will line up for these burgers. We got lucky and didnt have many people in the line, but the fact that a few people showed up spurred us on to get organised! We didnt wanna wait any longer than we had to... So I found us a seat against the wall looking at the space opposite, covered in a huge graffiti style mural. The place has a funky vibe, and the staff were friendly and not too cool for school, which happens alot in places like this.

Its difficult for either of us to go past a burger with beetroot in it, so we both went for the Mullet burger - partly for the name! Its got bacon, cheddar cheese, beetroot and a free range egg, topped with a char grilled Amelia Park beef patty (other accolades include being MSA approved, and hormone free). We ordered a side of chips and the spanish slaw, with sherry vinegar, honey and smoked paprika dressing.
These burgers are big. They come skewered with a steak knife, partially to keep it together when they're bringing it to you. This is not first date food. Im very lucky Im in a secure relationship and were past impressing each other. This got messy. Neither of us could take an initial bite for the ridiculous height of the thing, I had to resort to cutting mine in half, bf actually used his knife and fork. Juice everywhere. The bottom of my burger bun was bright pink from the beetroot. It was friggen delicious. We didnt talk much...

Ill admit the photo isnt of our visit, rather c/o the Spend it in WA blog, I didnt have my camera... so have had to troll the net for a substitute. These pics so the actual product you get served justice. They dont look that much different... Im always relieved when I hear a band live, if they sound just as good as what you hear from the studio. Same with food. A doctored pic, set up to look appetizing and appealing, is only any good if the product you end up with is similar. In the case of Jus Burgers, you do get what the promo pics show you.

The sides we ordered came out pretty fast. The chips were good, crunchy, salted, good portion size. The slaw would have been nice, however it was full of coriander and I hate coriander. This is normally fine, but it wasnt mentioned on the menu, which ruined it for me really. If I had've seen it had coriander in it I would have ordered something else, so I barely touched it. Bf wasnt sure he liked it either. Im not too sure about the addition of the smoked paprika either, Im not sure it did it for me, but to be fair I didnt give it a good crack, due to the evil green herb.

I ordered a chocolate shake, made from Bannister Downs chocolate milk, which was thick and rich. This is local milk which is FAB - we buy it regularly, their Cafe au Lait flavoured milk is also great. This leads me to another plus at Jus Burgers, theyre proud suppliers of local produce. The menu tells you where all the meat comes from, and the milk. They use free range eggs, and Australian oils. Its all on their menu, and they're vocal suuports of the Buy West, Eat Best campaign. They have great vegetarian options as well as a range of sides and sauces to make your burger how you want it - check out their menu. Boerworst, kangaroo, chicken... truffled chicken parfait?! Fancy pants or basic, you'll find it.

The food here is great, we both loved our burgers, even though they were stupidly huge and messy. I love that they're promoting local WA produce. Go there. Go early or line up!

Praised Chicken, Nigella Lawson

Today, my dear bf woke up with a cold, and stayed home from work sick. He had a fever and slept half the day, so because I was off work today as well, it was my duty to be the caring gf. Chicken soup was on the cards.


I went to my local butcher and bought a whole chicken - hormone and chemical free as well as organic. It was $16.95 for a 2kg chicken, which is a fair bit more than your run of the mill chicken. Upon getting the bird home though, it was worth it, plenty of meat, plump and juicy. The added reassurance that its free of nasties I dont even know how to pronounce, or that I could never begin to explain how they got in the chicken in the first place, really for me is worth every cent.


I grabbed some celery, a few waxy potatoes, and flat leaf parsley. On a side note, I went to a masterclass run by Vince Gareffa, the founder of Perths Mondo di Carne, purveyors of Perths finest meats! Anyway he told us that you should only ever use flat leaf parsley, because of its superior flavour. He explained that curly parsley was like pubic hair, only for decoration and not to be eaten! Wise words!


Now, Im not going to go on about the recipe itself, its very simple. Here are the ingredients you will need, taken directly from Nigellas website;

• 1 large chicken, preferably organic
• 2 teaspoons garlic oil
• 100ml white wine or dry white vermouth
• 2-3 leeks, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into approx. 7cm logs
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into batons
• 1-2 sticks celery, sliced
• approx. 2 litres cold water
• 1 bouquet garni or 1 teaspoon dried herbs
• fresh parsley stalks or few sprigs, tied or banded together
• 2 teaspoons sea salt flakes or 1 teaspoon pouring salt
• 2 teaspoons red peppercorns, or good grinding pepper
• chopped leaves, from parsley stalks above
• chopped fresh dill
• English mustard

Method

Serves: 4-8

1. Get out a large, flame-safe cooking pot (with a lid) in which the chicken can fit snugly: mine is about 28cm wide x 10cm deep.
2. On a washable board, un-truss the chicken, put it breast-side down and press down until you hear the breastbone crack. (As you may imagine, I like this.) Then press down again, so that the chicken is flattened slightly. Now cut off the ankle joints below the drumstick (but keep them); I find kitchen scissors up to the task.
3. Put the oil in the pan to heat, then brown the chicken for a few minutes breast-side down, and turn up the heat and turn over the chicken, tossing in the feet as you do so. Still over a vigorous heat add the wine or vermouth to the pan and let it bubble down a little before adding the leeks, carrots and celery.
4. Pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken, though the very top of it may poke out, then pop in the bouquet garni or your herbs of choice, and the parsley stalks (if I have a bunch, I cut the stalks off to use here, but leave them tied in the rubber band) or parsley sprigs
5. The chicken should be almost completely submerged by now and if not, do add some more cold water. You want it just about covered.
6. Bring to a bubble, clamp on the lid, turn the heat to very low and leave to cook for 1½–2 hours. I tend to give it 1½ hours, or 1 hour 40 minutes, then leave it to stand with the heat off, but the lid still on, for the remaining 20–30 minutes.
7. Serve the chicken and accompanying vegetables with brown basmati rice, adding a ladleful or two of liquid over each shallow bowl, as you go, and putting fresh dill and mustard on the table for the eaters to add as they wish.

I did cheat a few ways, I had no leeks so put in the last of the spring onions from my garden, I added potato because I wanted to, and toward the end of cooking I added rice.

It was delicious. I took the chicken out and reduced the soup down a bit more (in hindsight this wasnt necessary). I shredded the chicken and added it to the bowl on top of the chunky, ricey chicken broth, and finished it off with some parsley. I wasnt even sick, and I felt renewed.


This is a family feeder, crowd pleaser, lone freezer stocker... I will be making this again, for 100%. Its so easy, delicious and comforting. So good.

Neil Perrys Beef Rendang from Good Food

We have wanted to try this recipe from Neil Perrys book, Good Food, for a while now, since my bf loves curries, and he especially loves hot ones. The picture in the book makes it look lethal so bf was instantly attracted to it. One look at the ingredient list and he decided this was the one. 12 chillies.

Yes.

12.

I explained to him that the 12 chillies go into the paste and you dont use it all, however he was hooked. I was cooking the 12 chilli curry.

We went down to Wanneroo Markets and picked up all the necessary ingredients, quite a few that I dont have - shrimp paste, galangal, kaffir lime leaves... and came home with an affordable bag of goodies to get stuck into this recipe.

Deseeding 12 chillies wasnt great, Im not gonna lie. My fingers were dangerous little appendages for the rest of the night, its hard to get all that chilli oil thats seeped into your skin. The things I do for curry...

The curry itself is quite easy... You make a paste, cook it off, add the meat, tamarind, lime leaves, and coconut milk and let it simmer for 1-1.5 hours, and serve with rice. Easy.

However unless you already have a well stocked pantry full of SE asian ingredients, a trip to the asian grocer is in order - however we found the items inexpensive and easy to find. The only thing we didnt get, was fresh tumeric, and to be honest we didnt look that hard.

Heres the ingredient list for the paste (this is enough to make about 500ml of paste, which is enough for approx 4 curries. I have portioned mine out and frozen them in labelled bags, so another curry is but a quick defrost away!)

• 15g shrimp paste
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 5g fresh turmeric, grated or 1 tsp ground turmeric
• Finely grated zest of 1 kaffir lime (I used normal lime)
• 40g ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 40g galangal, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 lemongrass stem, white part only chopped
• 12 long red chillies, seeds removed and chopped
• 8 garlic cloves chopped

And for the rest of the curry you'll need

• 800g topside beef, cubed (I used chump steak, was fine)
• 150g rendang curry paste
• 600ml Coconut milk (I used light)
• 1.5 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 6 kaffir lime leaves, crushed
• 1.5 tablespoons grated palm sugar

The shrimp paste needs to be wrapped in foil and put in a medium oven for 10mins, until its fragrant. How you can tell when it becomes more fragrant than it is in its uncooked state I dont know.


It stinks.


Wow. Seal that baby up and put it away in the fridge until you need it again... get it outta the kitchen! I dunno how Im gonna use it all up, 15g isnt much, and I bought the whole block! On the upside though, its not expensive... A little info for you, Belacan is Malay for shrimp paste, Terasi is Indonesian, and Ngapi is Thai. For all other info you might want on shrimp paste, check out this site (thanks to TFP for sharing the link with me via twitter).

You pretty much just blend all the ingredients together to make the paste, and like I said you have enough for 3 or 4 curries.















Now is the time to turn on your exhaust fan, open the windows or doors. You're gonna fry that paste up and with 12 chillies you don't wanna be taking any chances regarding the coughing fit you may encounter.

Truth be told, I didnt have a particularly bad experience, like I have had before cooking chillies. But I started out with the door open and the fan on full. Stir the paste around for a few minutes and you'll smell it from a mile away. I could pick up the shrimp paste more than I would have liked, but everything else smelled great.

Add the meat, coconut milk, lime leaves, tamarind paste, and leave to simmer for 1- 1.5 hours. Make sure you stir it often, otherwise it can burn a bit. Also make sure you're not watching a Western Derby which goes down to goal kick after the siren... I admit I did slightly burn it a bit. Not much, it was all good. But my team lost so it wasn't worth letting my curry stick!

This next bit allows you to do what you want to your curry depending on what you want from it. If you like a creamier, saucier curry then cook it a little less until the sauce gets to a consistancy you like, otherwise cook it longer. However make sure you choose the right steak for it.

If you want a saucier curry, I would strongly advise you use a better cut of meat than chump or casserole steak, as it will be tougher than youd like, due to the shorter cooking time. You can add more liquid if you want a cheaper cut but a sauce that goes further, however I can't really tell you what that would do to the end result. Probably not much but dont quote me on that!

Bf likes his curries dry, so without too much sauce. He's also not a fan of curries with coconut milk (I did tell him it was in this curry but he was blinded by the 12 chillies), so he wanted his cooked down as far as it would go. The meat was still a bit tough for me, so I added some water to give it more time. In the end, we were hungry and just ate it, but it could have done with a bit longer to get the meat falling apart, which is how I like it in a curry. Add the palm sugar and salt last, to taste. It has a really tangy flavour to it when you're stealing bits of it during the cooking process (don't lie, you all do it too!), and so using the palm sugar will mellow out the flavour and make it alot more rounded.

We served with rice and some fresh lebanese bread we picked up (not authentic I know, but tasty nonetheless!). You can improve this curries presentation dramatically by topping it with some chopped coriander, however I hate the stuff so left it off.

Overall, it was a decent curry, but we both agreed that it was definately not the best curry Id made. I will make it again, as I have enough curry paste to feed an army, but next time I will cook it a bit less to keep the sauce creamy and coconutty - and eat it when bf isnt home lol. I think frying off the paste and then putting it in the slow cooker might be a winner, as it definately needs to have tender, fall apart meat.

I think its also worth mentioning that this curry is not hot.
At all.
Someone explain this to me.
There was NO heat, whatsoever.
Curry Fail.

UPDATE!
Well after this curry being a bit of a let down, I still had 2 serves of the paste left, frozen in bags. I decided to use them in a laksa inspired soup when I had a bit of a cold.

I fried off the paste until the house smelled like shrimp paste, garlic, ginger and lime, and added coconut milk and 2 cups of chicken stock, and let it simmer down for a while. I added some sliced chicken thigh to poach, and later some udon noodles, bamboo shoots, asparagus, broccoli, a squeeze of lime juice and a dash of soy... It was nice but not as nice as laksas Ive had from restaurants! It was also, again, not spicy at all.

Its nice and versatile, in that you dont need to use it just in a rendang, and can make things a few nights in a row from the amount of paste the recipe yields, and not feel like you're repeating yourself too much.

But I still think theres something missing from this paste... Im not sure if its something Ive done with it, or if its the recipe... Its not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but its not mind blowing either.

Grill'd Burgers, Joondalup

On thursday, after Id returned from a long drive home from the small country town I grew up, I felt pretty weird. For some reason I felt like I hadn't eaten in days (which is very clearly not the case). You know when you get sick and you dont eat much, and the day after you've recovered, you could eat for Australia? Thats how I felt. We were planning on going out to a japanese place, however I decided that I was in a burger mood. We headed to Grill'd, Joondalup.


I didnt even know what to choose, they had alot of items on the menu. I often go for any burger with beetroot in it - a burger isnt a burger without beetroot. At Grill'd, alot of them have it so I was spoilt for choice! I ended up with the Wild Wild West burger ($13.50), which at any other establishment would be an aussie burger. It had egg, bacon, beetroot beef patty, cheese, herbed mayo and relish. My bf ordered the same, with a regular chips ($4.30, which anywhere else would be a large - it was big!), and all 3 sauces (.70c each, sweet chilli aioli, herbed mayo and tomato relish).

The burger was SO nice, it was exactly what I felt like eating! It was messy, definately not first date food! The patty was juicy and really tasty, it had plenty of everything in it, and I chose to have panini bread rather than regular bread, which was really good. The chips were crispy, well cooked, and delish, with herb salt. The dipping sauces were nice, the sweet chilli aioli isnt spicy, but its creamy and tasty, the tomato relish was great, tangy and a nice contrast to the aioli. I didnt really like the herbed mayo, it tasted like it had something powdered in it, which tasted kinda strange. It was also a bit much because it was in the burger, and the herbs were on the chips. Herb overload! However it tastes good in the burger as its more of a background flavour.


We'd both definately go back, it was a good sized meal and left me satisfied! There are lots of other burgers to try, and if they're anything like the burger I had, Ill be happy to go back and eat more of them!!


Grill'd is located just outside Lakeside Shopping centre, opposite Grand Cinemas and The Sovereign Arms pub. Photo is c/o the Grill'd website.

Mandarin Cake

When you have a glut of fruit or veges, you end up searching for ways to use them to avoid chucking them out. This is what I've done when we had about 14 mandarines to use. Eating them is obviously an option, however they need to be eaten soon... They just wouldnt make it...

So I decided to make an adaption of Nigella Lawsons Clementine Cake - but with mandarines. The added bonus of this cake is that its gluten and dairy free! I dont follow either diet but its handy to have that kind of recipe in your recipe bank, should someone roll up with those requirements. This recipe also appeals to the frugal - you use the whole mandarin, skin and all. Ive read that this recipe can be adapted to use any thin skinned citrus fruit, and that its a very forgiving recipe - so if you try this with another fruit I'd love to hear about how it goes! Click on the link above for the recipe, Ill just describe how I did it and how it turned out.

Anyway... to start off you place 4-5 mandarins (I used 6 but 2 of them were really small) in a pot of cold water and bring it to the boil, and leave it on the stove for 2 hours. Depending on how you feel about the smell of mandarines, you'll either find the aroma the simmering fruits sweet, citrusy and warming, or weird. I found it pretty weird. It kinda reminded me of deep heat mixed with mandarin. Not the best combo. The recipe said nothing about whether or not you keep it boiling for 2 hours, or simmer... I pretty much just simmered it,but it boiled for a while. I dont think it really matters. The fruit will go from being shrivelled and bumpy, to smooth, plump and soft! Once they're done, drain them and leave them to cool somewhere for a while (be careful, as they're pretty hot!).
Once they're cool cut them in half and remove the pips, then blitz them whole. Skin and all! You can add the almond meal, sugar (I used half vanilla sugar and half caster, as I was unsure how strong the vanilla sugar would be), eggs and baking powder to the mixer, followed by your blitzed fruit, and give it a mix till its combined.

I found that the mix was really wet, and was a bit concerned that I had added too much fruit, however I was assured that it IS a wet mixture, and to have faith, Nigella wont fail me!!

Pour the mix into a greased 21cm tin, or as I used, a silicone mould. Make sure you have a baking tray or something similar underneath your silicon moulds, they're floppy and you might break your cake in half when you take it out of the oven!! I did admittedly use spray oil... I was in a hurry and couldnt be bothered to do it any other way. The purists will poo poo my decision to use it, however I had just spent half an hour scrubbing the shower, as well as the oven. So I earned a short cut, I think!

Pop your golden almond speckled gem into the oven for about an hour at 190C. You might find after a while that your cake is going a little tooooo golden on top (aka burnt) so after about 30mins cover it with baking paper to stop it going any further.

You can smell it now... and its smelling goooood! It will rise a bit, and I think I got lucky with mine, it was all uniform and looked good enough to be in a cafe - though it was slightly darker than I wanted in places... You need to let the cake cool completely before you try and get it out of your tin/mould. Its a really moist cake and when its hot its way too fragile to move it too much, just let it sit there for an hour for it to settle down and chill out.
For some reason, my cake seemed to be darker and moister than the rest in the middle, no taste difference really though! Its a bit sticky on the top, and came out nice and flat looking like a pro made it! Ive been told it improves in taste on the 2nd and third day, which is pretty sweet. So Ill have to report back tomorrow on how it tastes then. My bf and I had some tonight, and it was pretty nice. It was fairly sweet, as the boiling of the fruit really brings out the natural sugars. For some, its perfect, however for me, if I make it again Ill put less sugar in. It had a decent texture, however I noticed it being slightly eggy (there ARE 4 eggs in the recipe), which isnt something I really want my cakes to feel like, however it was negligable. Bf said that it was a good way to use up fruit that needs eating, however I dont think he was crazy about it. He said it needed a good bitter chocolate sauce on it, and I think it would be great with spiced lemony natural yoghurt or mascapone, as I think it definately needs something else.

However, in saying that... its meant to taste better tomorrow! So ill get back to you when I do further tests ;-)

UPDATE: have tried this cake day 2 and Nigella was right, it DOES taste better today. The citrus flavour has come out stronger and evened out the sweetness a bit. Its much better today - had it with some greek yoghurt which should have been toned down with something, but still really nice, with a healthy persuasion!

Related post: Ottolenghi's Clementine and Almond syrup cake - MUCH BETTER!