Easy meals - Rump steak with balsamic & tomato salad

I like nothing better than going to farmers markets. I love slowly walking around, observing, smelling and focusing on nothing but the food and what I can make with it.

However, I have one little tiny problem with many farmers markets, and that is getting up early on a weekend to go to them. Well actually I have a problem getting up early anytime, let alone on a weekend, which is sacred. But lucky for me the wonderful Jan Power's Farmers Markets are on in Brisbane CBD every Wednesday…ALL day. Perfect!

Fresh produce from the Jan Power's Farmers Markets,
Brisbane CBD

Today at the markets I found a great little stall selling beautiful looking red and yellow grape tomatoes along with a variety I've never seen before, plum tomatoes.

The larger tomatoes are plum tomatoes.
They have a very subtle but sweet taste.

When you have beautiful tomatoes like these, they must become a feature of the meal. And what goes better with tomatoes than basil. I managed to buy this bunch for $2.

My $2 bunch of fresh basil

I was also very happy to support some of our local farmers and picked up this delicious looking rump steak from Rangeland Quality Meats who have farms in southern and central Queensland.

Rump steak from Rangeland Quality Meats
after a good bit of seasoning

With all this fresh produce a quick and easy meal can be made.

This meal would be great if you had mid-week guests, or you just want to enjoy a healthy, scrumptious meal with your roomy.

Rump steak with balsamic & tomato salad 

by The Self-Raising Kitchen

Rump Steak with balsamic & tomato salad

Ingredients
2 x 200g rump steaks
1 handful of snow peas
2 cups mixed tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup basil leaves, torn
4 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp heaped, wholegrain mustard
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper

Method
Generously season your steak.

Blanch snow peas: bring a small saucepan of salted water to the boil. While waiting prepare a bowl of water with ice. Once water has boiled place snow peas in saucepan and cook for 1 minute. Pull snow peas out and place directly into iced water for another 1 minute. Drain.

Halve tomatoes and place in a bowl with torn basil leaves. Add extra virgin olive oil and season to taste. Mix with your hands (washed, of course).

Heat oil in a pan. Cook steak to your liking. Try to limit the turning of your steak as all you will do is ensure the outside is cooked and not allow the heat to go far inside; which is fine if you prefer your steak rare. Once cooked, remove from heat and let the meat rest. This will relax your meat and make it juicy and tender.

While your meat is resting, place snow peas and tomato salad on a plate.

Mix together the wholegrain mustard and balsamic vinegar.

Slice your steak and place on the plate with your snow peas and tomato salad. Drizzle the balsamic and mustard dressing over the steak.

Rump Steak with balsamic & tomato salad

cont...SRKitchen on tour - Marinated prawn salad with grated coconut

(photo by SRKitchen)

By popular demand to last week's Self-Raising Kitchen On Tour, I'm including the recipe for the marinated prawn salad with grated coconut.

This salad would be the perfect accompaniment to a summer barbecue or to cleanse the palate while partaking in a rich curry. Due to its fresh, vibrant flavours from the lemongrass, mint, coriander, chilli and lime, and the cooling crunchiness of the coconut, this salad promises to be a hit at your next dinner party.

Now, you do need to use a fresh coconut for this dish. Do not be persuaded to use desiccated coconut as it will not provide you with the same moist freshness that a whole one will give you. What I suggest is you find a sucker...I mean a wonderful helper, who will crack the coconut, pull the flesh out and then very patiently grate it. My beloved did this for me before he disappeared from the kitchen, and from yelling distance, so he didn't get roped in to do any more 'special' jobs.

Putting the final touches on the salad.

Marinated prawn salad with grated coconut 
by David Thompson

Ingredients
15 small green prawns, peeled and cleaned
large pinch of palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 cup grated coconut
4 red shallots, sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, finely sliced
handful of mixed mint and coriander leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 tbsp julienned long red chilli

Marinade
1 garlic clove, peeled
large pinch of salt
2-5 bird's eye chillies
4 tbsp kaffir lime juice, or regular lime juice with a touch of mandarin juice

Method
To make the marinade, pound together the garlic, salt and chillies using a mortar and pestle until you have a fine paste. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the lime juice. Add prawns and knead vigorously for several minutes. Leave for a further few minutes until the prawns have cured.

SRKitchen tip - I didn't have particularly small prawns so I cut up what I had into small pieces. As my host was not a fan of raw seafood, I left the pieces of prawns in the marinade for several hours. Remember the lime juice will actually cook the prawns, so you have no need to introduce any heat to this dish…well at least not from a flame, anyway.

Once you are happy with how 'cooked' the prawns are add palm sugar and fish sauce; the marinade should now taste sour, salty, hot and sweet (the four essential elements to Thai food). Work in the coconut. Add remaining ingredients, reserving a little shredded lime leaf and red chilli to garnish (or mint leaves and chilli).

-recipe end-

Give this salad a go, I promise you will love it as much as I do.

60th celebrations: Char-grilled chicken with corn salad and buttermilk dressing

In between my beloved and I searching for our first house and going through the marathon of getting finance - whoever said buying a house is one of the major stresses in life was spot on, dealing with bankers, brokers, lawyers and real estate agents all at once is not my idea of fun - we managed to hold a 60th celebration for my father.

It was a great evening with family and a few dear family friends. My dad hates fuss, especially when it comes to himself and his birthday. So my sister and I tried to make the evening as fuss free and relaxed as possible.

We started with simple canapes, sparkling wine for the girls and beer for the boys.

Watermelon and feta squares

Homemade walnut crisps with goat's cheese and pear

Artichoke tartlets

Main meal was simply char-grilled chicken - that my beloved kindly cooked on the barbecue for me - and the loveliest salad with char-grilled corn and a winning buttermilk dressing.

Char-grilled chicken
from Gourmet Traveller's Annual Cookbook
I used two whole chickens for 10 people

Char-grilled chicken marinated in lemon, cayenne
pepper, thyme, garlic and white peppercorns

Ingredients
1 chicken (about 1.8kg)
2 tbsp thyme
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tsp white peppercorns
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed

Method
You need to spatchcock the chicken. To do this cut down each side of the chicken's backbone with kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (discard bone of reserve for stock). Turn chicken over and press firmly on the breastbone to open out and flatten. I have actually found it helpful to slightly cut the bone on the non-skin side to help you flatten the bird. It is really important to do this so you can cook the meat more evenly on the barbecue. Score the thickest part of the breasts and thighs.

You can process the marinade in a food processor, however, I find pounding it in a mortar and pestle not only helps me relieve the tension built up from frustrating real estate agents, but it also produces a far richer flavour. Place thyme, garlic, cayenne pepper, lemon rind in your mortar and pestle and pound to your heart is content…or until you have a coarse paste. Place peppercorns in a spice grinder and grind. Add the white pepper, lemon juice and olive oil to your paste, mix together.

Pour marinade over chicken, rub into every little crevasse as the lemon will start the cooking process and make your meat lovely and tender. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

When ready to cook, drain the chicken and char-grill, turning frequently and basting with the marinade until golden and cooked through. Add the spring onions to the hot plate at the end and char-grill for about 2 to 3 minutes until wilted. The spring onions are a fantastic edition to any barbecue.

The char-grilled chicken with spring
onions on top

Corn salad with buttermilk dressing
I doubled this recipe for 10 people

Corn salad with buttermilk dressing

Ingredients
3 corn cobs
olive oil
1 baby cos
1 cup mint, roughly chopped
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and blanched
1 punnet cherry tomatoes

Buttermilk dressing
100 ml buttermilk
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp mayonnaise
50 ml lemon juice
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 small garlic clove, crushed

Method
Get your barbecue on so you can cook the corn and allow it to cool before you do anything else.

Once corn is cool enough to handle, cut the kernels from the cob and please in a bowl. Separate and coarsely tear cos leaves, add to corn along with cherry tomatoes, asparagus and mint.

To make the dressing, whisk all ingredients in a bowl until smooth, season to taste, refrigerate until required. Just before serving the meal, drizzle a little of the dressing over the salad, tossing to combine. Leave the rest in a dish for people to add more if they like.

The best part...we even got leftovers the next day.

Char-grilled chicken and salad leftovers

You, me & Dupree - whitebait, fish curry and the queen of puddings

Have you ever wondered what is in a bachelor's kitchen...or more appropriately, what isn't in a bachelor's kitchen? (Of course that question is meant for those readers who are not bachelors.) Well recently The Self-Raising Kitchen went roving and provided a dinner party for a friend.

A dear friend of my Beloved's is self-named Dupree.

I haven't actually seen this movie, but our Dupree does have a job, does not live with us, but is a regular at our dinner table, which we love. Honestly, Dupree!

After much discussion and attempts at finding a mutually convenient date in the diary, we finally set up a dinner party with friends of Dupree's at Dupree's abode with the self-raising kitchen as the caterer. It was so much fun; and a challenge, experiencing exactly what I should have thought to bring with me...starting with kitchen scales.

I think what completely cracked me up (made me laugh) was when I asked Dupree if he had a wooden spoon. He said, "Yeah, second draw down." So I opened the second draw and was confronted with the sweetest, cutest, tiniest wooden spoon.

THE wooden spoon. Length approx. 20 cm

I know what you're getting for your birthday, Dupree.

Arty 'spoon' photo taken by Dupree

Wooden spoon aside, I think the biggest test for me was making a dessert with no kitchen scales. This also meant making my first ever jam - which went into the dessert - by guestimation.

The menu

Each recipe came from the Australian Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook. 

I've made some adjustments

Starters

Crisp chilli whitebait and green mango salad

Mains

Burmese-style fish curry with noodles and mustard greens

Dessert

Queen of Puddings

Crisp chilli whitebait and green mango salad

This recipe would also be perfect for a light dinner. Beware of the amount of chilli you put in, I nearly ruined the taste buds of Dupree's guests.

Serves 6

Crisp chilli whitebait and green mango salad (photo by Dupree)

Ingredients

vegetable oil for deep frying
50g plain flour

salt and white pepper
750g whitebait (500g would be plenty)
1 green mango, cut into julienne
1 cup (loosely packed) each Vietnamese mint, coriander and round mint (use normal mint if unable to find the other types)
30 gm fried shallots (you can make your own or buy from Asian supermarkets)
2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 red capsicum, finely sliced

250g baby spinach leaves

lime wedges to serve

Mint dressing
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 small red chilli, coarsely chopped
35 gm white sugar
1 cup each (loosely packed) Vietnamese mint and round mint, coarsely chopped (or just normal mint)

60 ml (¼ cup) lime juice
60 ml (¼ cup) fish sauce
60 ml (¼ cup) rice vinegar

Whitebait frying (photo by Dupree)

Method
For mint dressing - pound garlic, chilli and sugar in a mortar and pestle to a coarse paste, add mints and pound to combine and set aside. Just before serving, stir in lime juice, fish sauce and rice vinegar.

Preheat oil in a deep-sided saucepan or deep-fryer to 180C. Combine flour, salt and white pepper in a shallow bowl. Dust whitebait in flour mixture, in batches, and deep-fry until crisp and light golden (4-5 minutes), then drain on absorbent paper. Fry twice, in batches, to make them extra crispy.

Combine mango, spinach, capsicum, herbs, fried shallot and spring onion in a bowl, drizzle with a little mint dressing. Toss lightly to combine. Place on your serving plate and put whitebait on the top to ensure they stay crispy. Serve with extra mint dressing and lime wedges.

Burmese-style fish curry with noodles and mustard greens
serves 6

Burmese-style fish curry with noodles
and mustard greens (photo by Dupree)

Ingredients
80 ml (1/3 cup) peanut oil (olive oil will also suffice for those with nut allergies)
4 red shallots, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
800 gm thin fresh rice noodles
To serve: coriander sprigs, small green birdseye chillies, pickled mustard greens (available from Asian supermarkets and well worth getting. They are delicious), lime wedges and chilli powder (only include what you like)

Fish curry
1 tsp shrimp paste
6 vine-ripened tomatoes, scored
60 ml (¼ cup) sesame oil
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
30g (5cm piece) ginger, cut into julienne
2 lemongrass stalk, white part only, finely chopped
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
4 tsp finely chopped fresh turmeric (available from a good green grocer. Wear gloves when chopping or you will look like you like playing with yellow paint)
1.5 tsp each sweet paprika and ground chilli
750 ml coconut milk
3 fresh curry leaf sprigs
2.5 tbsp tamarind purée (most supermarkets now sell this, or try an asian supermarket), or to taste
2 tbsp fish sauce, or to taste
2 tbsp caster sugar, or to taste
4 firm white fish fillets, such as coral trout or barramundi (about 225gm each), skin on. I used barramundi.
Juice of 1 lime, or to taste

Tomatoes blanching (photo by Dupree)

Method

For fish curry, preheat oven to 180C. Wrap shrimp paste in foil and roast until fragrant (5-10 minutes), then set aside. Meanwhile, blanch tomatoes until skins split, then refresh, drain, peel, finely chop and set aside. 

Heat sesame oil in a wok or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass and sauté until softened (10 minutes), add fenugreek, turmeric, spices, shrimp paste and sauté until fragrant (1-2 minutes), then add coconut milk, curry leaves, tamarind, fish sauce, sugar and tomato and stir occasionally until flavours meld (20-30 minutes). Add fish and cook over low heat, breaking up slightly with a wooden spoon, until cooked through (4-6 minutes). Add lime juice, adjusting seasoning to suit your taste, keep warm.

Meanwhile, heat peanut oil in a saucepan over medium heat, fry shallot and garlic separately until golden (3-5 minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on absorbent paper. Or, you can purchase these from Asian supermarkets.

Place noodles in a heatproof bowl, cover completely with boiling water and stand until heated through (1-2 minutes), then drain and serve with fish curry, fried garlic and shallot, coriander, chillies (if using), mustard greens, lime wedges and chilli powder (if using) to the side.

Queen of Puddings

This tradition British dessert can be made in separate ramekins or in a pie dish.

Serves 4

Queen of Puddings. I was shocked these actually turned
out considering everything was measured by feel
rather than weight (photo by Dupree)

Ingredients

140g fresh fine breadcrumbs, from white bread
Finely grated rind of 2 lemons
200g caster sugar
225ml each milk and pouring cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
4 eggs, separated
butter for greasing ramekins or pie dish

Berry jam
500g (2 punnets) strawberries, trimmed and quartered
300g caster sugar
100g (½ cup) frozen raspberries
Thinly peeled rind and juice of 1 lemon

Making the jam  (photo by Dupree)

Method

For berry jam - combine ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil over medium-high heat and stir frequently until mixture reaches setting point (20-30 minutes; see note), then set aside to cool. You can also gently heat the sugar in a low oven before placing it in the saucepan. This will prevent scum forming on the surface. 

Preheat oven to 180C. Combine breadcrumbs, lemon rind and 40g sugar in a heatproof bowl, set aside. Bring milk, cream, vanilla bean and seeds just to the boil in a saucepan over medium heat, pour onto breadcrumb mixture and stir, then stand until breadcrumbs swell (3-5 minutes). Remove vanilla bean and discard, then stir in yolks until well combined. Spoon into 4 buttered 200ml ovenproof dishes and bake until custard just sets (12-15 minutes). Keep warm.

Meanwhile, whisk eggwhite in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (3-5 minutes). Gradually add remaining sugar in a steady stream, whisking continuously until stiff and glossy and sugar has dissolved (3-5 minutes). Spread a very thin layer of berry jam over puddings (remaining jam will keep for one month), top with meringue and bake until golden (5-10 minutes). Serve hot.

Note - to test setting point, place a few saucers in the freezer while jam is cooking. Remove jam from heat and spoon onto a cold saucer, return to freezer for 30 seconds, then push with your finger. If it wrinkles, it’s ready. If not, cook jam for another few minutes, test again, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

So, to my friends in the wider Brisbane area, who would next like to experience the roving self-raising kitchen? Remember, you will be my guinea pigs.

Water, water and more water; plus a calamari and chorizo salad

Many of you may be aware I live in Brisbane, Queensland, and today the city braces itself for some of our worst ever river floods. Since yesterday I have not been able to take my eyes off the television or from my laptop looking for news from loved ones saying that they are safe. Check out Travelling with Ana's incredible photos of the city as the river rises...and is no where near its peak yet.

While the skies continued to precipitate upon us yesterday I wanted my beloved and I to share in an easy but nice meal to remind us of the importance of being with your loved ones during these scary times. I went to the shops, stocked up on food and bought a couple of tasty treats, including some calamari (although it wasn't fresh...but I wasn't about to complain about that) and yummy spanish chorizo sausage. After some cutting and quick cooking, the TSRK calamari and chorizo salad was born.

TSRK calamari and chorizo salad
by The Self-Raising Kitchen

TSRK calamari and chorizo salad
(photo by My Beloved)

Ingredients
1 calamari tube, sliced
1 spanish chorizo sausage
200g baby spinach leaves
1/2 capsicum
1 tomato
1/2 cucumber
1/4 cup basil
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley
250g chickpeas
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Splash of white wine
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

The best thing about this salad is you can add are delete any of the above that you may or may not like.

Method
Slice and fry chorizo sausage. Leave on a paper towel to sop up any oil or fat.
Chop up your salad items - tomato, cucumber, capsicum and place in a large bowl along with your chickpeas, torn basil and chopped parsley.
Slice your calamari and place in a bowl with salt and pepper and half the lemon juice. Reheat the same pan you cooked the chorizo in and cook garlic and chilli for 1 minute. Add wine, cook for a further 30 seconds, then add the calamari and cook for about 2 minutes or until they turn white. Turn off your element, add spinach and mix around until it is just wilting.  Place calamari and chorizo in the bowl with your salad and mix around.  Add the rest of the lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. It is ready to serve.


PLEASE HELP!
My heart goes out to all those people across Queensland who have lost their homes, possessions, or worse, loved ones. If you would like to help support these people rebuild their lives once flood levels start to recede please visit the Queensland Premier's Flood Appeal. Every little bit helps!