invisiblecompany

This is from simply recipes though to be honest it’s a standard braising recipe that I’ve used time and time again. The 2 new things are: short ribs, which I’ve never done before and reducing the sauce till it’s very thick.

1. brown ribs (no oil needed, it’s already fat enough), remove from pan
2. remove excess oil, sweat mirepoix until soft
3. add 1 bottle wine, reduce to 1/3 original volume and almost syrupy
4. return ribs to pan, add chicken stock until ribs are almost covered — recipe says veal or beef stock, neither of which I have
5. braise at 180°C for 3hrs until meat is falling off bones
6. leave overnight — normally it’d be in the fridge, I did one better and left it on my balcony with its 4” of snow
7. remove fat layer (there’s a lot of it), reheat making sure ribs are well glazed

I discovered quinoa over the summer and has made it several times as a salad or as the starchy part of a meal. Little did I know, until I read more about it, that chocolate and quinoa go so well together.

This recipe is adapted from here. The author thoughtfully tried to convert American cup measurements to metric but failed in a spectacularly cute way — there is no way on earth that flour and sugar are measured in ml.

3 eggs
150g sugar
100g butter
100g chocolate
225g cooked quinoa
175g flour
1 tsp bp

1. whisk egg and sugar until pale and thick
2. melt butter and chocolate over bain marie
3. add chocolate mixture to egg mixture
4. add quinoa
5. sift in flour and bp
6. bake at 180°C for 30-35mins

Okay, this is just…phenomenal. The quinoa gives it a chewy crunchy texture that is unique and the cake itself is moist and fluffy. I ate a slice, then half of one, then the bits that fell off when I moved it. I’ve never been so lacking in discipline, and I don’t usually like chocolate.

Come to think of it, making yule log is one of my family’s christmas traditions. This is a nigella like recipe made from a flourless cake mixture and chocolate butter icing.

6 eggs, separated
6oz / 150g sugar
2oz / 50g cocoa powder + 2tbsp for icing
3oz / 75g butter
8oz / 250g icing sugar

1. whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks, then add 50g sugar
2. in a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, rest of sugar until pale and mousse-like, add cocoa powder
3. fold egg white mixture into chocolate mixture
4. bake at 180°C for 20mins until cake springs back when pressed
5. cool for 5mins, then turn out to greaseproof paper sprinkled with sugar on a wet tea towel
6. make icing by whisking butter, icing sugar, 2tbsp cocoa, 2 tbsp milk
7. spread icing on cake, then roll up like a swiss roll
8. cut off a branch, stick to main branch using icing
9. spread icing all over, sieve icing sugar and decorate

It was too sweet, next time I’ll use crème au buerre filling and ganache as icing.

about 2/3 loaf of sourdough bread, cut into cubes
half a punnet mushroom, roughly diced
about 12 stalks asparagus, cut to 1” lengths
2 eggs
500ml mixture of milk and vegetable (or chicken if non-vegetarian) stock, about 2:1 ratio

grease the bottom of an oven dish with butter, spread over the bread cubes
add the vegetables
mix the eggs, milk and stock together, pour over bread and vegetables, season
stand for 5-10mins for the liquid to be absorbed, pressing the bread with a spoon if necessary
bake at 200°C for 1 hr until golden brown
stand in dish for 10-15mins before seving

This is an old recipe revisited. I got this off an early Jamie Oliver series, may even have been the original Naked Chef. Now that’s memories.

It’s so easy to make, no cooking apart from the pasta. I used fettuccine rigate, which is like regular fettuccine except with ridges along the length of the noodle. Basically, cook the pasta, drain and add cubed brie and cherry tomatoes. I used a mixture of fresh and roasted tomatoes. The heat from the pasta will melt the cheese. Season and drizzle with olive oil.

The first time I came across quince paste was in Australia, and I’ve been lucky enough to have had quince paste in my fridge for many years. I had to throw them away when I moved. Which was why I was so ecstatic to see fresh quinces at the store last week.

Quince the fruit looks like a pear, which was a surprise to me. I’d never googled it, for some reason in my little brain I thought it’d look like kumquats for no good reason other than the ‘q’ factor. Heehee.

This time I did google, and learned that in its raw state the fruit is inedible. Mostly it’s cooked and made into a paste or jelly. In Spain it’s called membrillo and is eaten with manchego, a hard cheese made from sheep’s millk — to the extent that it seems to be the national snack.

 

This quince paste recipe is straightforward but time consuming:

1. peel, core and chop 6 quince fruits (about 4-5 pounds)
2. cover with water and simmer for 1-1.5hrs until tender
3. strain water away, blitz until smooth
4. return to pan and cook for 2hrs until thick — took me longer than that
5. dry in low oven (100°C is the lowest mine goes) for 12hrs — again, took me longer than that, and it never really solidified like the commercially bought ones I used to have

Oh, so worth it, so delicious. And I went especially to the new french market to get the manchego cheese. Then I spread the paste over like jam. The manchego is nice, it had a rosemary crust and a mild taste. I’m thinking I can substitute comté or gruyère to pair with the quince.

Adapted from simply recipes, my butternut squash was never as orange as Elise’s.

Chop half a butternut squash into 1” cubes, top with a granny smith apple, sliced. Sprinkle on a mixture of 2oz butter, brown sugar, 1 tbsp flour, salt and pepper. Top with cranberries — I had dried, which I reconstituted with some hot water. Bake at 180°C for 1 hour. I added a can of chickpeas towards the end.

This is one of my standbys, so easy to make. Came from one of Donna Hay’s books.

Make very thin omelettes. I’m lucky to have a small rectangular frying pan that is the perfect size for these.

Stuff the egg “pastry” with smoked salmon and salad greens. Rocket is the best, but any crunchy salad greens will do.

The idea is always the same: brown the protein, add vegetables, add liquid and cook slowly for 2-3hrs until the meat is tender. Serve over some sort of carb that can mop up the sauce.

I saw oxtail and I was so excited. It’s been a long time. I braised it with a bottle of guinness and several ice cubes of chicken stock. The vegetables were standard mirepoix plus canned tomato. I let the finished product sit in the fridge overnight so the extra fat can solidify to be scraped off.

This was served over potato and turnip mash.

8oz plain flour
4oz butter
2oz sugar
1lb cooking apples
(above pic is double)

Rub butter and flour together until breadcrumb stage, add sugar. This can be made in advance.
Peel, core and cut apples into slices and arrange at the bottom of an oven dish, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon to taste.
Add crumble mixture on top of apple.
Bake at 180°C for 30mins until golden.
Serve with lots of custard or vanilla ice cream.

Alternatives to apple: add blackberries or blueberries in which case splash some balsamic vinegar for flavour.

Note for my American readers: sorry, I have no idea how weight translates to cups. Basically the ratio is 4:2:1 for flour vs butter vs sugar. 180°C is 350°F.

I’ve always thought risotto is difficult to make, at least perfect. I knew I’d have to try to make it one day, and with the mushrooms I bought at the farmer’s market early this week, it’s a good opportunity. This recipe is inspired by, no surprise, Elise, with modifications. And I didn’t measure.

1. sauté mushrooms with butter, garlic and cream; set aside
2. meanwhile, heat up a carton vegetable stock to simmering point
3. melt butter in heavy pan, add arborio rice
4. slowly, add stock one ladle at a time, stir until completely absorbed before adding next ladle
5. when all liquid is absorbed and rice cooked, add mushroom mixture
6. season, serve with shavings of pecorino (or parmesan)

The verdict — it was scrumptious!!! I can’t stop eating it. It’s like congee made with cream of mushroom soup. The cream and mushroom flavours really came through. And the rice wasn’t hard to make. All I needed to do was focus on what was going on in the pan and not multi-task. The actually cooking of the rice took about 20mins. Can’t wait till I make it again.

For some reason I was under the impression that panna cotta is difficult to make. Perhaps it’s because it tastes so decadent and creamy that it must be hard to make, right?

Oh my, how WRONG.

This recipe is from Chocolate & Zucchini, and even Ms Dusoulier acknowledged how easy it was.

• bring to a simmer 250ml whipping cream, 250ml whole milk and 50g sugar, stirring occasionally to ensure the mixture doesn’t boil
• soak a packet of gelatin in a little water to soften, add to hot cream mixture to dissolve
• cool, then transfer to bowls quickly rinsed with cold water (for easy removal)
• refridgerate for 3 hours or overnight until set
• to make the coulis, chop 250g strawberries and heat with a simple syrup of 50g sugar and 2tbsp water, then blitz till smooth
• decorate with strawberries

It was so good, I had to exert a great deal of self-control not to have a second helping.

This recipe is from a book that is not a cookbook. It’s unusual to find recipes in hidden inside fiction, but that’s what Karin did with Making up for Lost Time, one of my favourite romances of hers. There are other recipes in there I will try, and I really really would like to have a copy of that From the Waterview cookbook that Jamie Onassis wrote.

This is a lighter version of the traditional chicken cacciatore, and like many traditional dishes each cook will do it differently. I diced the vegetables quite large, and kept the sauce thin. I froze the sauce after cooking, to add to the chicken when I was ready to make the dish.

For the cacciatore sauce:

3 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
3 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
2 red peppers, diced
8oz mushrooms, diced
large can plum tomato
oregano, basil

drain artichokes, keeping the liquid
cook carrots in artichoke juice until soft
add garlic, onions, celery, peppers and mushrooms and heat until cooked
add a little red wine to deglaze
add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 1 hour, adding water if too thick

The chicken was baked separately, adding the sauce about 15mins from the end. I served it with rigatoni, perfect for soaking up the sauce.

Quinoa is new to me, I’ve read many good things about it. I ended up picking at it while cooking and it’s kinda addictive. As usual Elise has the perfect description,

It has this wonderful nutty flavor, that actually doesn’t need much added to it; I used to make a quick batch, pour on some flax seed oil, sprinkle with a little salt, and gobble it up.

This dish is based loosely from a recipe from 100 cookbooks. Well actually, the only things I have in common with Heidi’s recipe are the quinoa and tomatoes. But that’s the point of this recipe, its flexibility and how it’s a great use of whatever vegetables and ingredients are sitting around in the fridge.

1. cook quinoa according to instructions — simmer in double volume of water until completely absorbed, very similar to cooking rice
2. in a frying pan, heat 1 clove of garlic with olive oil, then add the quinoa
3. add vegetables — i had leftover carrots, mushroom and i supplemented them with frozen corn and spinach. Frying them all up it’s a bit like making fried rice
4. add diced baked bread cheese just before turning off the heat
5. season, and dress with red pesto
6. top with dried cranberries and roasted cherry tomato

Basically, any dried robust vegetable can be used. Use tofu, halloumi or feta in place of the baked cheese. This is a completely vegetarian dish, but it didn’t taste like it’s just vegetarian.

I saw this recipe on chocolate et zucchini and immediately thought about all the various courgettes, zucchinis and squashes that are available during the summer months at farmer’s markets.

These are small patty pan (aka scallop, aka button) squash. Only $2 for the punnet. Of course at the farmer’s market the produce are not standard shaped like what you’d get at a supermarket, and that’s part of the charm.

I topped and tailed the squash, slicing into wedges — 8 for a large squash and quartered for smaller ones. Roasted at 200°C with salt and olive oil for 30mins until slightly browned.

In the meantime I made the dressing. And here is where I deviated from Clotilde’s recipe. Instead of mint, chives and coriander I only used mint cos that’s the only one I like. I didn’t have lemons but I had limes, which I thought gave it better flavour. I chopped the mint with lime zest. Mixed with lime juice, a few capers, black pepper and EVOO. I didn’t have paprika or cayenne so I left it out. It was a bit too salty so I added a dash of balsamic vinegar.

When the squash was done, I tossed the wedges and drained chickpeas with the dressing. Oh my, very delicious!

 

This is a recipe from Donna Hay’s A New Cook. I’ve been looking for ways to use the beets I bought at the farmers market earlier this week. The beet greens recipe based on one from Elise Bauer.

• marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic rub, s&p
• scrub beets, keeping skin on, add olive oil, salt and bake at 180°C for around 40mins until soft enough for a knife to run through
• about 15mins before the beets are cooked, brown chicken in a pan and add to the beet pan to finish in oven
• wash beet greens thoroughly, remove tough stalks and chop roughly
• dice 2 slices of bacon, fry in hot pan
• add beet greens to bacon, add water, cover and simmer for 10mins until soft; season with worcester sauce and a little sugar
• when everything is ready, peel beets, cut into wedges and serve

The second time I tried it I made it with yellow beets, and added a couple of slices of fried green tomatoes. Served with red wine. On the left Old Moon old vine zinfandel and on the right a petite syrah/syrah/cab/merlot/zin blend called SNAFU.

Interesting that wisebread just had an article about the bargains at the local Asian market. That’s exactly what I did, went to the Asian supermarket to get soy sauce and fishballs. I was so happy to see these long beans that I immediately got them, then thought about what i had at home. My fridge and pantry aren’t really that stocked up yet, but I had scallops in the freezer and I usually have bell peppers for salad.

Perhaps unexpected, I’m actually not very good at asian food. The basics of stir-frying I know, even though I hardly do it. Cook the meat first, until almost done then remove. Then cook the vegetables and return the meat at the end to heat through and season. This combination was simple and great. I served it on couscous cos, well, i felt like it. There’s this saying that good food must have colour, smell and taste and i think i achieved that.

I’ve always found soufflé intimidating. I suppose I shouldn’t, cos I’m not a bad pastry chef. Not surprisingly there are a lot of recipes. Because I don’t have my cookbooks I focused purely on the ones available online. After a little research I decided on the one at cooking for engineers. It seemed straightforward and I appreciated the step-by-step pictures.

The first challenge was that I didn’t have time to go shopping during the week for the chocolate I wanted to use. At the end I got 2 packs of baking chocolate and mixed the 100% and 54% together.

In a bain marie, melt 8oz chocolate, 1tbsp butter and 60ml double cream. Meanwhile, whisk 5 egg whites with 1/2 tsp cream of tartar till soft peaks, then add 70g sugar and whisk till the stiff peaks stage.

Add 4 egg yolks to the chocolate mixture, then fold in the egg whites. Bake at 190°C for 20mins, serve immediately.

The good news is that it was mostly successful. The soufflés didn’t deflate, and were very rich. The bad news was that the chocolate didn’t work out and it wasn’t sweet enough. It actually wasn’t good enough quality. Next time I’ll use proper high quality chocolate.

This is a simply recipes recipe. I spotted lamb shanks at the supermarket, and decided that this cold weekend would be the perfect opportunity to make it. In steps:

1. wash, trim lamb then season with s&p and coat lightly with flour
2. brown in garlic and onion
3. remove from pan, then add dice carrots and celery. optional is to add leeks, but i don’t like leeks

 

4. return the lamb to the pot, add chicken stock, canned tomato and fresh rosemary
5. simmer for 2.5-3hours until tender
6. meanwhile dice carrots, parsnips and swede, toss in olive oil and season, roast for 1 hour

 

7. make couscous according to packet instructions
8. build the dish: couscous at the bottom
9. then roasted vegetables
10. stack with whole lamb shank
11. drizzle sauce, then sprinkle pepper and rosemary

This was really delicious using vegetables I have in the fridge. The scallops were frozen, in a perfect world I’d get fresh ones. Wash the scallop, driy them over paper towels and pan-fry them in olive oil. Just s&p as seasoning. It only takes a few minutes to get them medium — do NOT cook them completely.

In another pan, cook the rigatoni. When done, drain and add spinach which will cook in the heat of the pasta and pan.

Remove the scallops and quickly toss some yellow pepper pieces into the pan. Throw the pasta and spinach in with the peppers to remove the residue at the bottom of the pan. Add a teaspoon of red pesto for flavour.

Arrange the scallops on top of the pasta and veg, add a little black pepper to finish. I suppose a real chef will drizzle over some olive oil but i didn’t do that.

Every Christmas and other holiday, danish butter cookies in their distinctive round blue tin comes out. I defy anyone to say they don’t like these beauties.

So I was reading how Molly from orangette made them. Anyone who regularly reads food blogs will appreciate that orangette isn’t just a food blog with recipes, it’s a full-on foodie experience. Anyway, I was intrigued with the recipe, which was from the December 2008 edition of Gourmet and apparently is one passed down through several generations.

I used scaled down proportions, because I didn’t need so many. It’s easy for me to get the authentic Danish Lurpak butter; I generally use Anchor but Lurpak is only slightly more expensive, and probably worth it to follow the recipe. The American convention of using cups instead of weight fazed me a little, but I’ve converted it.

8oz butter
1/3 cup sugar, or around 3oz
2 cups plain flour, or around 12oz
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 small egg, for eggwash
sugar for sprinkling — the recipe calls for sanding sugar, I just used demerara

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then the recipe says beat the flour and baking soda in using the electric whisk, which…is an invitation for having flour flying everywhere. I folded the dry ingredients in using the more trusty spoon spatula method, only when mostly combined then I whisked the mixture till it was like crumbs.

Work the dough between 2 sheets of clingfilm, then roll out to a rectangle. I found that folding the clingfilms so they form the rectangular shape made rolling much easier, and the dough kept to the shape. Chill in the fridge for at least 30mins.

Remove the top sheet of the clingfilm and cut into 1” squares. This was the shape I liked most, and the easiest to work with. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle the demerara sugar.

Bake at 160C for 15mins. I found it needed an extra 5 mins to get really pale golden brown, I guess it’s my oven. Anyway, watch them till they get pale golden. Cool for 5mins then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes around 50 cookies.

 

Okay, mine don’t look as pretty as the blue-tinned danish cookies. In fact they look kinda like sad shortbread, and very difficult to photograph (as warned by orangette). But man, they taste decadent.

This was a quick dish I threw together cos I didn’t want to spend too much time prepping and cooking. I got the peeled shrimps from the supermarket. Fresh but packaged. Normally I’d go for the larger fresh (still swimming) prawns, cook a large batch and freeze them.

I sautéed the shrimps and set them aside. While the pasta was cooking I chopped up a couple of ripe tomatoes and reduced them till they were soft and just like a sauce.

When the pasta was ready, I tossed everything together.

Simple and quick. Not a jar of sauce in sight.

I bought one of those large butternut squash — this one is about 4.5lbs. One half I’ll use to make butternut and chickpea salad with tahini, the other half I used to make butternut squash soup. It’s a pretty standard recipe, the addition of a tart green apple tempers the sweetness of the squash.

I pre-roasted the butternut to give it additional flavour, and par-boiled a carrot

In a pan heat a little olive oil, add a couple sticks chopped celery, the carrot, half a green apple and the butternut. Add chicken stock and simmer till everything is soft. Season and blitz till smooth.

I threw in a dollop of yogurt cheese (my sour cream substitute) for appearance.

A straightforward herb focaccia with smoked salmon and yogurt cheese. Included to illustrate how versatile yogurt cheese is, as a substitute for cream cheese or sour cream — similar consistency but with far less fat and a nice tangy yogurt-y taste.

Marinade pork chop with olive oil, rosemary and seasoning. Bake with sliced apples, basting regularly, until done. Serve on a bed of baby spinach.

This is a recent Recipe for Health at the New York Times. Very simple to make and a great pasta substitute.

Slice a zucchini (courgette) into thin ribbons using a potato peeler so they look just like fettuccine. Sauté in olive oil for a few minutes. Remove before they get soggy. Season.

This can be eaten as is, or the recipe recommends adding tomato sauce. I ran out of red pesto and didn’t have jars of sauce handy so I chopped up a ripe tomato and mixed it up with a little balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning so it had a salsa-like consistency.

Easy to make, tasted great. I had it cold the next day and it tasted even better.

Anyone who doesn’t: a) like b) know how to make this dish should have to eat nothing but oatmeal for a month.

Made everything from scratch, no jars of sauce. Oh, okay, the tomatoes are canned chopped tomatoes. Minced beef, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic. I like mushrooms in my spag bol, I suppose I should dice them finely so they are similar sized to the mince, but I like my mushroom visible and chunky.

This apple & blackberry crumble cake recipe is from bbc good food. It’s one of the more involved recipes I’ve tried. Nothing difficult, just time consuming and fiddly.

For the cake:
150g unsalted butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g crème fraiche

For the fruit topping:
25g unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar
4 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
150g blackberries

For the crumble topping:
50g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
75g plain flour
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Step 1: make the crumble topping
melt the butter, then mix in the sugar, cinnamon, flour and nuts. Set aside

Step 2: prepare the apples
melt the butter in a frying pan, add the sugar and apple wedges
cook for 10-15mins until the apples and soft and golden. Set aside to cool

Step 3: make the cake
cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
add eggs one at a time
fold in flour, baking powder
add crème fraîche

Step 4: assemble
spoon roughly 2/3 of the cake mixture into a round cake tin
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
top with the remaining cake mixture
scatter 1/3 crumble mixture
arrange apple and blackberries
top with remaining crumble mixture

bake at 190°C for 1.5 hours, covering with foil halfway through if crumble browns too quickly
cool for 10 mins then cool on wire rack
serve with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup and crème fraîche

From Delia’s winter collection. I don’t usually like nuts, but this was good.

1oz each of macadamia, pecan, hazelnut, brazil nut
2oz dark chocolate
4oz butter
2 large eggs
8oz granulated sugar
2oz plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Roughly chop and roast the nuts for exactly 8 minutes
Melt chocolate and butter over a pan of simmering water
Cool, then mix in all the other ingredients
Bake at 180°C for 30 mins, cool, then cut into squares

This is a Donna Hay recipe (though I don’t understand why she doesn’t take advantage of the internet and post some of her recipes on her website). Very simple and easy to make.

marinade chicken in balsamic vinegar, garlic, olive oil and pepper
place on grill
add limes to grill halfway through
serve on a bed of salad, i used a red salad of carrot, tomato, yellow pepper and sweetcorn

I had the leftovers cold today, as a grilled chicken salad and it was just as good.