Getting my chop on and Paella

Slicing, dicing, chopping, the rhythm of the repetitive movement so relaxing and the cheapest kind of therapy I can get.

I do it slowly and calmly, winning no races, just chop chop chopping.

I love getting everything prepared so I can just put it all in the pot when it’s needed.

Cooking is such a methodical, organised part of my life when life can be anything but organised and methodical.

This chicken and chorizo paella recipe was perfect for me to get my knife skills in action chopping onions, garlic, capsicum and chorizo. It was also the first time for me to cook paella and I will certainly be making this one again.

Chicken and chorizo paella

Chicken and chorizo paella
Adapted from Jamie Oliver does…

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
Olive oil
2 raw chorizo sausages, thickly sliced
300g cooked chicken, roughly chopped
1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
a small bunch of fresh parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a good pinch of saffron
300g Arborio rice
200g jarred red peppers in oil, drained and roughly chopped
400g can of diced tomatoes
1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock
150g snow peas, sliced thinly at an angle
1 lemon

Method

Heat a large wide-based pan over a medium heat and add a glug of olive oil and the sliced chorizo (if you use uncooked chicken add it to the chorizo). Fry for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. As soon as the chorizo starts taking on colour and the fat is beginning to cook out of it, add the chopped peppers, garlic, onion and parsley stalks along with a good pinch of salt and pepper and the saffron. Fry gently for another 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to soften.

Add the rice and jarred peppers and keep stirring for a few minutes until the rice is coated in all the lovely flavours, then pour in the tinned tomatoes and 800ml of stock, seasoning again with salt and pepper. Bring everything to the boil, then turn down to a medium to low heat and stir constantly for about 15 minutes. Make sure the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan as it absorbs the liquid, so keep stirring.

After 15 minutes the rice should be cooked, but still have a bit of a bite. Add the cooked chicken at this point. You may want to add an extra splash of stock here if the rice looks a bit dry. Keep stirring and cook for another 5 minutes or until chicken heats through. Add your green beans and cook for a further 5 minutes while stirring. Stir in the chopped parsley and the juice from half your lemon. Cut the other half of the lemon into wedges for serving. Enjoy!

Crispy soy-roasted pork belly

Hands up who loves pork crackling? I mean, unless you’re vegetarian, what’s not to like about this salty, crispy, flavoursome piece of scrumminess?

I’ve been hanging out with my brother and his family on Boyne Island, just near Gladstone, Queensland, for the week. As a wee thank you for them having me I decided to treat us all to a meal of pork belly with steamed greens. 

I found this recipe by one of my favourite Australian chefs, Kylie Kwong. I’ve cooked a number of her recipes and have always been happy with the results.

However, the method used in this recipe guaranteed crispy crackling. It did not happen. Not happy, Jan! So I had to resort to my foolproof method for crackling, which is putting it under the grill at the end of cooking the meat. Always keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn, but if the skin is going to crackle at all, it will do it via this method.

The taste of the meat was sensational, though. Because it’s marinated overnight the flavour of the five spice went through the meat beautifully. And the slow cooking process leaves the meat succulent.

What’s your foolproof way of making crackling?

My other pork belly recipe is Chinese red roast pork belly.

Crispy soy-roasted pork belly

Crispy soy-roasted pork belly
from Simple Chinese Cooking Class by Kylie Kwong

Ingredients
1 × 800g piece of free-range boneless pork belly, skin on and scored (ask your butcher to do this)
500ml boiling water
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp salt flakes
For the marinade
2 tbsp brown rice miso paste
1 tbsp five-spice powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Method
Place pork belly, skin-side up, on a wire rack over the sink. Pour over boiling water to scald the pork skin – this will help the skin crisp up into crunchy crackling.

Pat rind thoroughly dry with kitchen paper and place pork, uncovered, in refrigerator for two hours.

Remove pork from fridge and place, skin-side up, on a chopping board. Using the tip of a sharp knife, stab the pork skin repeatedly until the surface is covered with holes, being careful not to go all the way through. Turn the pork belly over and make cuts about 2cm apart and 1cm deep.

Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Rub marinade evenly over the flesh side of the pork (not the skin) and massage well into the cuts.

Place pork, skin-side up, on a wire rack (this same rack will be used for roasting the pork, so make sure it is ovenproof and fits inside a roasting tin) and place over a tray or large plate to catch any drips. Place in refrigerator and leave pork uncovered overnight, during which time the skin will dry out. The drier the skin, the better the crackling when roasted.

The next day, bring pork to room temperature and preheat oven to 150°C (300F).

Transfer pork and wire rack to a roasting tin. Rub skin well with the sesame oil, then scatter salt all over. Roast for 1½–2 hours or until tender (to test, pierce the meat with a skewer – you should meet no resistance). Increase the oven temperature to 220°C (430F) and continue roasting for 15 minutes. This final blast of heat will crisp up the skin, turning it into crackling.

Remove pork from oven and allow to rest, uncovered, in a warm place for 15 minutes. To serve, cut into 1cm slices. Serve as part of a banquet for four people.

Cooking for a crowd and chocolate mousse

I get a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach when I can provide loved ones with a tasty meal. You see, I'm slack most of the time. I'm terrible at keeping in touch with friends, my housekeeping skills are appalling, my organisational skills are 'interesting', my financial prowess is non-existant, but, I can cook. And, I think most importantly, I love it!

So when a dear friend of mine and my beloved invited us to a little soiree at his apartment for his birthday, I jumped at the chance to cook for his guests.

Dupree, as he likes to call himself and which I blogged about here, or as he is more widely known, Jamie, provides a great deal of support and friendship to my beloved, so the way I know how to show gratitude for this friendship is to cook.

And cook I did. For 25 people in fact. Arghhhhhh! This was honestly the most challenging cooking experience I've had to date. But I took the bull by the horns, got my organisational skills polished, got my head focused and did it.

The menu consisted of:

Asian style pork meatballs (GF)

Beef Rendang (GF)

Chilli con carne (GF)

Chicken and prawn wontons

Chocolate mousse shots with a blueberry flower on top (GF)

A number of the guests at the party were gluten intolerant, so after a little recipe tweaking, they were easy to accommodate and able to partake in all that I made, apart from the wontons.

As you can see from the food it was a carnivore's paradise. 

I used 3kg beef mince, 3kg chuck steak, 1.5kg chicken,
1kg pork mince, 8 chorizos, and 200g prawns

If you would like to cook up your own party storm here are some links:

• Asian pork meatballs - I used this recipe from taste.com.au. To make it GF substitute the plain flour for GF breadcrumbs (in a food processor finely chop stale GF bread to make this), and ensure you use GF soy and oyster sauce (both are easily available in supermarkets).
• Beef rendang - I used this recipe from Gourmet Traveller. I substituted the beef oyster blade with chuck steak (just make sure you give it plenty of time to cook so it is tender) and if you can't find galangal, replace it with ginger.
• Chilli con carne - I used this fabulous recipe from an awesome site called The Self-Raising Kitchen. 
• Chicken and prawn wontons - I'm afraid you will have to wait for another post on this one, as it is a secret recipe from my brother-in-law.
• Chocolate mousse - I am going to share the recipe with you below. It is from the Edmonds Cookery Book. If you are from New Zealand you will recognise the name. Basically, every Kiwi household owns this fabulous book, which was first published in 1908 and gives you simple, everyday recipes and cooking tips. My dad is a Kiwi, hence why my whole family are proud owners of this great book. In fact my mum's Edmonds book would be about 40 years old now and is well loved. I hope you enjoy this very simple and very yummy chocolate mousse recipe.

Chocolate Mousse

by Edmonds Cookery Book

serves 4-6

Deliciously light and fluffy chocolate mousse

Ingredients

150g cooking chocolate (I use dark)

4 eggs, separated

300ml cream

2tbls sugar

grated chocolate

blueberries

Method
Break chocolate into the top of a double boiler, Stir over hot water (not too hot or you will ruin your chocolate) until chocolate has melted. Allow to cool slightly. Stir yolks into chocolate. Beat until thick and smooth.

Beat cream until think. Quickly fold chocolate mixture into cream.

Whisk egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gradually add sugar, whisking until think and glossy.

Fold half egg white mixture into chocolate mixture until well mixed. Repeat with remaining egg white mixture. Pour into your individual ramekins or one large one or shot glasses as I used for a cocktail dinner. Decorate with grated chocolate and some extra whipped cream, or simply cut a blueberry into quarters, but not to the very bottom, and open it out to look like a flower like I've done.

*Tip - I used my food processor, blender and hand blender to do all the different steps so you can get it done quickly and don't have to waste time washing in between steps. Whatever you do, if you choose to only use one blender, don't leave your egg whites sitting around. They will separate and you will have watery stuff left at the bottom. Also, when you are folding the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, be gentle, as you want your mousse to be lovely and light so don't knock the good work you put into it when whisking.

Enjoy!

Family Fun - Duck Mole Poblano

It was close to midnight. My beloved and I were chatting away (okay, it was me chatting away). Suddenly, like a lightening bolt to a lightening rod, like a positive charge to a negative charge, like a bee to a flower, an idea plunged into my head and the family Easter feast was born.

Without consideration of the hour on my part, texts were sent to my family. With consideration of the hour from my beloved, emails were sent to his family: Family Easter Feast at The Self-Raising Kitchen on Easter Saturday. Bring a dish!

I love a feast.

Family Easter Feast Menu

entree

BBQ baby squid with a Greek salad

(prepared by my sister)

My sister's amazingly tender BBQ baby squid
with a side of Greek salad

main

slow roasted pork belly

roast tomato and bean salad

(prepared by my father)

duck mole poblano

radish salad

(prepared by me)

dessert

triple chocolate trifle

(prepared by my mother-in-law)

My father's most amazing and succulent
slow roasted pork belly

In this post I'm going to share the recipe of the dish I cooked: Duck Mole Poblano courtesy of the April edition of SBS Feast magazine. I chose this dish in honour of chocolate, it was Easter after all, and mole poblano is a Mexican dish that includes chocolate. How could I go past it?

There's a couple of items in this recipe you won't be able to buy at your local grocer. Let me introduce you to my favourite online spice store, Herbies.com.au. This place has everything you could hope to want when it comes to herbs and spices, including wonderful quality and fabulous turnaround times. I made my order late one Monday evening and I had my spices by Wednesday. It is too easy.

Mexican chocolate from the fabulous
herbies.com.au 

Duck Mole Poblano
by the SBS Feast magazine, April 2012 edition
Serves 4

Ingredients
6 dried pasilla chillies or dried ancho chillies, seeded, stems removed (you can buy these from Herbies. I used the ancho chillies (they come in 3 to a pack) as I was cooking for chilli novices and this is a really sweet chilli. In fact, once I had rehydrated the chillies they smelt like prunes to me.)
4 (about 800g) duck breasts, trimmed (this can be substituted with chicken)
1 tbs vegetable oil
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
2 cloves
1 cinnamon quill
40g Mexican cooking chocolate, chopped
410g can whole tomatoes
chopped coriander leaves and lime wedges, to serve

Ingredients for almond paste
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small corn tortilla
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
35g (quarter cup) raisins
40g (quarter cup) blanched almonds, toasted (simply place in a non-stick pan over a low heat until fragrant and lightly brown)
2 tbs pumpkin seeds, toasted (as above)
2 tbs sesame seeds, toasted (as above)
1 tsp ground coriander
2 garlic cloves, quartered

I deseeded my chillies after soaking them,
which was a lot easier.

Method
Soak chillies in 500ml water for 20 mins to soften. Drain, reserving 250ml soaking liquid. Process chillies in a food processor, gradually adding reserved liquid, to form a smooth paste.

Ancho chilli paste

To make almond paste, heat oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add tortilla and cook for 1 minute each side or until lightly golden. Remove from pan and roughly chop, then process in food processor with the remaining ingredients until smooth.

Almond paste

Place duck breasts, skin-side down, in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cook for 8 minutes or until skin is golden. Turn and cook for a further 2 minutes or until lightly browned. Cut into 3 pieces on the diagonal, cover and set aside.

Golden skinned duck breasts

Heat oil in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add chilli paste and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until fragrant. Stir in the almond paste and cook for a further 3 minutes or until slightly reduced. Add chicken stock, cloves, cinnamon, chocolate and tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Add duck and cook for a further 10 minutes or until sauce has slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper, scatter with chopped coriander and serve with lime wedges.

Duck mole poblano
(food photography is a skill, a skill I still do not have)

The festival of 40 - marinated pork belly and strawberry cheesecake

As Queensland starts to slowly come back to some sort of semblance of normality...slowly...I have been working in the self-raising kitchen, but it has felt very wrong to write about it.

But, as a much wiser person than myself once stated, 'the show must go on'.

And this is exactly what me and six of my dearest friends decided when it came to making a decision about cancelling or continuing with a dinner party planned for my friend's, LL, 40th. The show - or the party in this case - must go on.

LL has been plagued by floods over the last three weeks after spending Christmas in Bundaberg (north of Brisbane) with her family to "relax" when the first flooding started in Queensland. Then, on her mission to get out of her birth town - which she did do - and get herself, her twins and husband safely back to Brisbane before the highway was cut off from flooding, Brisbane city started to flood. Is it you, LL???

Despite the flooding and trouble finding enough fresh food in the supermarkets, the evening began with much love, laughter and bubbles; with a slightly changed menu plan based on what food myself and my cooking partners, the great Mr & Mrs D, could buy; and...did I mention it had to be gluten free for the birthday girl! It was a wonderful start to LL's festival of forty weekend and a great way to spend with much loved friends.

The Menu

Starters

Homemade hummus, cheese and crackers

Mains

Chinese red roast pork belly with salad

Dessert

Strawberry cheesecake with strawberries in ginger syrup

Chinese red roast pork belly
by Rick Stein, Far Eastern Odyssey

Chinese red roast pork belly

Ingredients
1kg pork belly
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1tsp finely grated fresh ginger
100ml dark soy sauce
2tbsp Chinese rice wine
1tbsp five-spice powder
2tsp natural red food colouring (I don't include this)

For the eight of us I used 1.5kg of pork belly and changed the recipe accordingly.
As the meal had to be gluten free I used a GF soy sauce (the brand was Spiral Foods). This isn't very dark so I added some pomegranate molasses I had in the cupboard to get that dark sweetness into the marinade.

Method
Put the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey, rice wine, five-spice powder and red food colouring (if you're using it) into a shallow dish and mix together. Place the pork belly in the marinade with the skin facing up. Ensure the marinade covers all the flesh but don't get it on the skin. The skin needs to be kept dry so you can get crispy, crunchy, yummy crackling. Set dish aside in the fridge to marinate for at least eight hours, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Pierce the skin with a skewer or small sharp knife at about 3 cm intervals, then rub with a little olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. I roast the pork belly in the marinade, Rick suggests you place the pork on a rack over a roasting tin with water in it. You can choose your preferred method of cooking. Cook for about 2 hours depending on your oven.

I also turn the marinade into a sauce. Simply take the meat out, place your pan on the stove (or if it isn't stove top proof, place the marinade in fry pan) on a high heat. Add about a tablespoon of sugar and reduce to you have a thick sauce.

TSRK Tip
Now to get really good pork crackling - which for me is the BEST part of pork...I know I'm all about health - all you need to do is grill the skin once the meat is cooked. If it still isn't crackling, pierce the skin a few more times with a skewer or sharp knife. Perfect crackling is now yours.

Tasty pork belly with crispy, crunchy,
salty, delicious crackling....YUM!!!

Strawberry cheesecake with strawberry in ginger syrup
by Gourmet Traveller 2010 annual cookbook

Strawberry cheesecake with
strawberry in ginger syrup

Ingredients
I halve these ingredients as I find you have enough cheesecake mixture for two cakes
750g softened cream cheese
500g mascarpone
190g raw caster sugar
finely grated rind of 2 limes and juice of 1
4 eggs
300g sour cream
140g strawberries, coarsely chopped

Sweet ginger pastry
30g pure icing sugar, sieved
125g softened butter
125g plain flour - obviously being GF I used GF plain flour (the brand was White Wings)
2 tsp ground ginger

Strawberries in ginger syrup
300g raw caster sugar
2 tsp ginger, cut into julienne
juice of 2 limes
500g strawberries quartered

Method
For the pastry, preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius. Beat icing sugar and butter in an electric mixer until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes), sieve over flour and ginger and stir to combine. Turn onto a work surface, bring together with the heel of your hand, roll out to 4mm thick and line the base of a 27cm-diameter, 5cm-deep fluted tart tin, trimming edges.
If you are using GF flour don't turn the mixture onto a work surface. Simply place it in the tin and work it around to cover the bottom.
Refrigerate to rest for 30 minutes, prick with a fork, blink bake until light golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. With the GF flour, don't put your cooking beads in, it doesn't need it, but it may need a little longer in the oven. Cool once cooked.

Lightly brush sides of tart tin with butter. Process cream cheese, mascarpone, 165g raw caster sugar, lime rind and lime juice in a food processor until smooth, scrape down sides of bowl then add 3 eggs, one at a time, processing to combine. Pour over pastry, bake until just set (40-45 minutes) and remove from oven.

Meanwhile, process sour cream, strawberries and remaining raw caster sugar in a food processor until smooth, add remaining egg and process to combine. Ladle over cheesecake and bake until just set (8-10 minutes). Cool, then refrigerate until completely chilled (4-5 hours)

For strawberries in ginger syrup, combine sugar and 250ml water in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the simmer, add ginger, cook until ginger is translucent and liquid is reduced to a light syrup (5-6 minutes). Remove from heat, add lime juice and half the strawberries, refrigerate until chilled. Add remaining strawberries and serve spooned over cheesecake.

The strawberry and ginger syrup adds an incredible level of tastiness to this dessert, so don't miss it.

Happy birthday, LL!!