Smoked salmon chowder and no-knead bread

Do you fancy yourself as a baker or a cook?

I am certainly the latter. The problem with me and baking is the precision needed. Precision is not my forte. I’m more of a feel-as-I-go, lots-of-tasting kind of girl.

That’s why bread making is not really my thing. HOWEVER, this no-knead bread recipe that I found in my sister’s latest edition of Donna Hay is a WINNER, people. It involved a bit of stirring to bind everything, a little patience and then some quick cutting and manoeuvring of some very sticky, wet dough. Whack it in the oven and Bob’s your Uncle, so to speak.

The bread goes incredibly well with this divine and ridiculously simple salmon chowder. We had plenty for leftovers and it was delicious warmed up, again, two days later. 

Campbell’s liquid stock now does a fish stock so that should be easy to find in your local supermarket. The smoked salmon fillet can be found where the sliced smoked salmon is in the cold section. Supermarkets provide a packet with off cuts of fillets, which are cheaper and work perfectly fine in this recipe. 

Other than that, tuck into these two delightful recipes and enjoy. 

Smoked Salmon chowder with corn and dill.

Smoked salmon chowder with corn and dill

Adapted from Donna Hay magazine Issue 75

Serves 6 

Ingredients 

50g unsalted butter
2 leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
600g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 litre fish stock
100g crème fraîche
370g smoked salmon fillet, skin removed and flaked
2 corn cobs, kernals removed
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
juice of one lemon
¼ cup dill sprigs
salt and pepper

Method
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook for 4 minutes or until soft. Add in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the potato, stock, salt and pepper and cook, covered, for 10 minutes or until the potato is soft.

Remove from the heat and, using a hand-held stick blender, blend to a thick soup. Return the soup to a medium heat, add the crème fraîche, salmon, corn and dill and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Check seasoning and add salt or pepper if required.

Add the lemon rind and half of the juice, stir to combine. Taste and ensure the lemon is to your liking. Add more if needed. Serve with no-knead bread rolls.

No-knead bread

No-knead bread rolls
From Donna Hay magazine Issue 75

Ingredients
4½ cups (675g) ‘00’ flour
1¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons table salt
2⅓ cups (580ml) water

Method
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix to form a wet sticky dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to stand for 4 hours or until dough has tripled in size and has large bubbles.

Turn out onto a well-floured surface, divide into 7 pieces and shape into rounds. Oil the base of a 30cm-round heavy-based ovenproof saucepan with flour and place the rounds inside. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and allow to stand for a further 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 220°C. Remove the plastic, cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for a further 20 minutes, or until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped lightly. Turn out and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Makes 7 rolls.

No-knead bread

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)

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.

SRKitchen on tour - a Thai banquet

The menu

From David Thompson's Thai Food cookbook

Banquet

Sour orange curry of trout and vegetables

Red curry of fish and bamboo shoots

Marinated prawn salad with grated coconut

Egg nets with prawns

Pickled vegetables

Dessert

Passionfruit and mango jelly with vanilla and elderflower ice cream

Photo by the SRKitchen team

It was so damn exciting yesterday getting back in The Self-Raising Kitchen to prepare a feast for friends, but 'on location'. Some of you may remember my first on tour feast at 'Dupree's' house. As I had such a ball doing the first one - despite the challenge of a miniature wooden spoon and no kitchen scales - I asked a very dear friend of mine, who just built a new house with a VERY snazzy new kitchen, if I could do another SRKitchen on tour. She kindly accepted with a WOOP! 

I would like to thank Anita and Leigh for hosting this event with such enthusiasm, excitement and support. It was a fabulous evening with friends, plenty of food and a great deal of wine. Your kitchen rocks, especially with a rangehood that works AND a gas stove. Two things I miss very much in my own little kitchen.

Now my challenge for most of my cooking adventures with friends, is that I generally have never cooked the item before. I'm mad, I do realise. And even my father (ex-chef) laughs at me whenever I tell him what delicacies I'm making my friends trial and that I've never cooked before. Don't worry, he often gets to be a guinea pig for my cooking adventures, too.

But for this feast I had at least made the dessert previously and the pickled vegetables. So it was only four other dishes I needed to conquer. 

Thai banquet hosted by Anita & Leigh

For me the challenge was in making the egg nets. They sound odd don't they? But they ended up being the hit of the evening.

Thanks to David Thompson's detailed instructions in his amazing book Thai Food, every dish is possible to the novice Thai cook with a little patience and commitment. Including egg nets.

Egg nets with prawns

Egg Nets by David Thompson

Ingredients

3 eggs

oil for frying

3 coriander roots, scraped

pinch of salt

4 garlic cloves, peeled

10 white peppercorns

50g minced pork (as I had a person who does not eat meat at the feast, so I added another 50g of prawns)

100g minced uncooked prawns

2 tbls fish sauch

3 tbls palm sugar

1 tbls finely sliced lemongrass

3 red shallots, sliced

1 tbls julienned red chilli

handful of coriander leaves

Method

Whisk the eggs lightly to combine. Do not over-beat, as this will make the eggs difficult to strain; it also incorporates to much air, which makes the eggs 'bubble' slightly on cooking, and then becomes tough. Strain the whisked eggs through a fine sieve to remove filaments and membranes, and to help break down the protein. Rest eggs overnight in a glass or plastic container, which must be scrupulously clean (they are very susceptible to absorbing other flavours). Store in fridge.

Next day, pour the eggs into a bowl wide enough for your hand, and leave to reach room temperature. Dip the tops of your fingers (up to the first joint) of one hand into the bowl, stir through the mixture, then lift your hand from the bowl. The egg mixture will dribble and drip back into the bowl. Try this a few times to become accustomed to its flow.

Half fill a wok with oil and heat it up to medium, then maintain this temperature over a low flame. Now dip your hand into the egg mixture and quickly wave across the wok, so that the egg drizzles into the oil. Move your hand backwards and forwards, then from side to side, to form the net. Do not move too quickly, or the strands will be to thin to form a net and too brittle to fold when cooked and cooled. It will be necessary to re-dip your hand into the egg mixture several times to form sufficient strands to make a net.

SRKitchen tip - the egg first sinks to the bottom and then floats to the top to start frying. I had to deep my hand many times to form the net so don't be conservative with your mixture.

Make egg nets by placing hand in bowl

Make egg nets by allowing the egg mixture
 to dribble into hot oil.

Watch the temperature: if the oil is too hot, the eggs cook too quickly and the nets become brown and brittle. If the oil is too cool, then the net becomes sodden with the oil. Remove net and drain on greaseproof paper. repeat until all the mixture is used (normally 1 egg makes 2 nets). Cool. The nets can be made several hours in advance.

Using a pestle and mortar, pound coriander roots, salt, garlic and peppercorns into a paste. Heat oil in a pan or wok and fry paste until fragrant and golden. Add pork and, after a minute or so, the minced prawns (as I only used prawns I just added the prawns), stirring regularly to prevent clumping. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar, and set aside. When cool, mix with lemongrass, shallots, chilli and coriander.

SRKitchen tip - when you add the fish sauce and palm sugar, keep cooking until you get a delightfully thick sauce type consistency. You don't want a lot of liquid at this point.

Lay out one net. Spread some of the mixture on the lower third of the net. Roll the net, gathering in its ends to form a cigar. Repeat with the remaining nets and mixture. On serving, slice into pieces with a sharp knife.

-recipe end-

The rest of the feast:

Pickled vegetables - Chinese radish,
Chinese cabbage and snake beans.

Marinated prawn salad with grated coconut

Red curry of fish and bamboo shoots

Sour orange curry of trout and vegetables

To finish the feast, something a little lighter:
Passionfruit and mango jelly with vanilla
and elderflower ice cream.

If you would like me to post any of the above dishes, please leave a comment below and I'll happily provide the recipe in my next post.

Happy cooking adventures!

Assorted seafood braised in coconut milk

Last night my beloved and I had a few of our friends over to catch up over food and a few drinks after Christmas/New Year travels. It was a beautifully cool evening in Brisbane, and although rain was predicted, the heavens held off and gave us an unnaturally cool summer evening.

As I went to Labrador -- a beautiful calm water beach on the Gold Coast -- on Friday with my sister, nieces and parents, where we had a swim, played in the playground, had a BBQ lunch, enjoyed a (much needed) coffee, we then had to hit the local fish market, Charis Seafoods. This place is fantastic with all the seafood looking incredibly fresh and irresistible; I could barely contain my excitement. All of us walked away with something: red emperor fillets for my sister, john dory fillets and calamari tubes for my father, and green prawns, swordfish fillets and squid for myself.

With this kind of exceptional seafood at my fingertips, my menu for Saturday night was decided: seafood. And as I was hankering for an Asian fish curry, dinner was decided.

Assorted seafood braised in coconut milk
from Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey

Assorted seafood braised in coconut milk
(photo by TSRK team)

Rick's original recipe is for 4 people, which I'll include here. I doubled it for 5 people and let's just say I had practically nothing left but a little bowl full for my lunch today.

Ingredients
400g fish fillets. I used swordfish, Rick suggests monkfish, john dory, barramundi, gurnard or sea bass.
250g prepared medium-sized squid
12 large raw peeled prawns
Freshly ground white pepper
1 tbsp lime juice
200g (8 heaped tbsp) Balinese spice paste (see below for the recipe)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 kaffir lime leaves, torn into small pieces
2 fat lemongrass stalks, halved and bruised
120ml chicken stock
250ml coconut milk

Method
Cut fish into 3-4cm chunks. Slit the body pouches of the squid along one side, open them out flat and score the inside into a fine diamond pattern with the tip of a small, sharp knife. Cut the squid pouches length ways into strips suitable to your liking. Score the fins in the same way and cut in half, then separate the tentacles into pairs.

Put the fish, squid and peeled prawns in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the lime juice. Mix it together. Add half of the spice paste and rub it well all over the pieces of seafood.

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan over a medium heat. Add the remaining spice paste and fry gently for 2-3 minutes until it starts to smell fragrant. Add the kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and stock and simmer for 1 minute.

Add the pieces of fish only to the pan and leave to cook for 1 minute, then turn them over and cook for a further minute. Add the coconut milk to the pan, together with the squid and prawns, and simmer for 2 minutes until all the seafood is just cooked. Season to taste with a little more salt (if needed, mine didn't) and lime juice to taste and serve.

TSRK tip
Although this is a Balinese dish and many Asian dishes cook seafood longer, I stick to my preference of just cooked seafood. It is a lot tenderer and seems to melt in your mouth this way. So remember, don't let this dish sit around cooking on an element as it will continue to cook in the heat of its on sauce even while it is in the bowl ready to be devoured.

Assorted seafood braised in coconut milk
(photo by TSRK team)

Balinese spice paste
1.5 tsp black peppercorns
half nutmeg
25g candle nuts, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts or roasted peanuts (I used macadamia nuts)
1 tsp sesame seeds
60g shallots, roughly chopped
25g peeled ginger, roughly chopped
40g peeled galangal (or extra ginger), roughly chopped
15g peeled fresh turmeric, chopped, or 1tsp turmeric powder
3 fat lemongrass stalks, core chopped
20g garlic
2 medium-hot red chillies, seeded and roughly chopped
3 red bird's eye chillies, roughly chopped
1tsp shrimp paste
1tbsp palm sugar
1tsp salt
3 vegetable oil
juice of half a lime

Put the peppercorns, nutmeg, nuts and sesame seeds into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Tip into a mini food processor, add all the other ingredients and blend everything into a very smooth paste.

TSRK tip
Got a chilli novice coming for dinner? Simply reduce the number of chillies. I included 1 red chilli and 1 bird's eye in my paste. My chilli novice was very happy with the heat of the dish. However, if I was cooking this for my mother I would probably only include 1 chilli and take out the seeds. She's pathetic with hot food.

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!