Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

While I consider myself rather lucky to be living in a gorgeous part of an inner suburb surrounded by park lands, I can’t really consider myself a nature forager. And this is the type of dish that’s well known among the mushroom foragers.

So imagine how excited I was when I came across a stall holder at our local farmers’ market selling bags of these pine mushrooms (also known as saffron milk caps for its gorgeous orange coloured ‘milk’ that appears when the mushroom is cut) I promptly handed Mini Me over to Josh and quickly grabbed one of the last bags on offer. For the rest of the market trip, I was constantly stopped by other market goers and quizzed about where I bought these mushrooms from. While never having them before, I knew I was onto a good thing!

The lunch that follows our once-a-month farmers’ market trip is always very simple. We have a rule that when you have the best and the freshest ingredients, we don’t mess with it. And this risotto is no different.

Cleaning Pine Mushrooms (Saffron Milk Caps)

(not the cleanest mushrooms, are they?)

The batch of mushrooms we got seemed rather dirty and really needed cleaning. After consulting a few cookbooks and online, I decided on these very simple steps which worked really well.

1. Use a pastry brush to brush off any dirt or grass.
2. Use the end of a small knife to scrap off any other unclean, discoloured bits that didn’t come off with the brush.
3. Rinse briefly under cold tap. (I saved the rinsing water and poured it onto the nearest pine tree. You know, just in case!)

(cleaning the mushroom with a pastry brush)

Don’t worry about washing away the flavours of these mushrooms. They were perfectly fine. In fact, I would say they need a little bit of liquid to steam while we grill them.

Quick Chicken Stock

For a vegetarian version, substitute with your usual good vegetable stock.

1. 1 meaty chicken frame
2. 1 litre water
3. any vegetable offcuts you can find such as carrot peels and tops, parsley stalks, celery or onion
4. a good quality vegetable stock cube

Rinse chicken frame and place in a saucepan. Cover with water and bring to boil. Leave on boiling for about 10 minutes. Add vegetable off cut and stock cube. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes while you prepare other ingredients. Keep the stock hot when making the risotto.

Risotto For Two

(soaked porcini)

1. 1  cup of risotto rice (I used Carnoroli, you can use others but adjust the amount of stock accordingly)
2. 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
3. 1 shallot, finely diced
4. 1 onion, finely diced
5. 1/3 cup white wine
6. 3 sprigs of lemon thyme, leaves picked (substitute with normal thyme and a bit of lemon zest)
7. 4 large slices of dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in a cup of hot water, reserve soaking water

Heat olive oil in a thick bottom frying pan or saucepan, very slowly fry shallot and onion for about 10 minutes until translucent but not coloured. The onion and shallot will be nice and sweet and contribute to the dish. Turn up the heat to medium and add rice. Fry the rice for about 2-3 minutes or until the rice become too hot to touch.

Splash in the white wine until evaporated. Add the lemon thyme (or thyme) leaves. Add the porcini soaking water and chopped up porcini and a ladle of stock. Stir constantly and keep adding stock – until the rice is just cooked with a bite in the middle. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Note that different rice requires cooking methods so follow the packet instruction about cooking time and amount of liquid.

The consistently of the risotto needs to be creamy and oozy.

Grilled Mushrooms

1. 200 g saffron milk caps (substitute with field mushrooms), sliced into large piecse
2. 1 tbsp melt butter
3. 1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
4. 1 sprig of lemon thyme, leaves picked

Mix chopped garlic into melted butter. Grill mushroom pieces on cast iron grill or plate until slightly charred and smoky on both sides. Brush with garlic butter. this should take about 10-15 minutes for the saffron milk caps. If you are using normal field mushrooms, they will cook slightly quicker. Once cooked, transferred into the rest of the garlic butter and sprinkle on the lemon thyme. Cover and keep warm.

Putting It All Together

Once the risotto is done. Turn off the heat and add a dollop of butter and a grating of parmesan. Cover and rest for a minute. Serve in a nice warm bowl topped with grilled, garlicky mushrooms.

So heavenly. Perfect dish for the cold weather.

And so even though we have moved onto a very crisp first day of Winter today, my memories are still lingering on the lovely Autumn we had. And who knows? Next year, you might see our little family foraging for these lovely mushrooms.

The very first time I had rabbit was actually at Grossi Florentino and it was absolutely delicious. One Saturday I just decided that cooking a bunny was in order so I perused through all my food books and settled on something vaguely resembling Stephanie Alexander’s Country Rabbit in a Claypot.

I never cooked rabbit before so I figured surely one cannot screw up a casserole and went with that choice. Which turned out to be a rather good one (if I may say so myself). Our local butcher sold whole free-range rabbits, which  she kindly jointed for me (very loudly with a huge cleaver, might I add. Josh commented, ‘Bunny definitely dead now’).

Marinade

1. 1 farmed rabbit (about 800 g.)
2. 1 tbsp dijon mustard
3. 1 tbsp plain flour
4. 1 tsp soy sauce
5. 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked

Start by making a paste from the ingredients above (minus the rabbit of course) and then coat the rabbit pieces with it. Leave to marinade while you prepare other things.

(fryin, not boiling, the bunny)

Casserole

1. 1 onion, finely chopped
2. 1 carrot, finely diced (reserve peel)
3. 1 carrot, sliced into chunks (reserve peel)
4. 100 g. of smoked bacon (I used kaiser but try pancetta or any smoked bacon)
5. 8 pickling (small) onions
6. 12 small button mushrooms (leave whole, or halved)
7. 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
8. 1/2 cup of dry white wine
9. 3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked

Stock

1. 2 fresh (or dried) bay leaves
2. 1/2 litre of boiling water
3. carrot peel
4. pumpkin peel (from the pumpkin and sweet potato mash puree)
5. sweet potato peel
6. 2 tsp of Vegeta gourmet stock powder (or your favourite)
7. 4 pieces of dried porcini
8. rosemary stalks

(simmering the stock)

Start by heating up a bit of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the rabbit pieces on all sides until browned. Be careful not to dislodge the marinade.  Set the meat aside in a casserole dish and deglaze the pan with the white wine. Pour the pan juice onto the rabbit pieces.

Meanwhile, heat up a knob of butter in a frying pan and slowly fry the chopped onion and diced carrot with some garlic and rosemary. Add the bacon and cook on medium heat until the bacon mixture slight lycoloured. Place the bacon and onion mixture on top of the rabbit pieces in the casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 160′C. Put the casserole dish in it to keep warm while making the stock.

Pour the stock ingredients onto the frying pan that was just used for the bacon and simmer the stock ingredients for 5 minutes. Pick out the bay leaf and add to the rabbit. Add the pickling onions. Strain the stock and pour it onto the casserole dish. Cover and cook for an hour.

After an hour, add the mushrooms, carrot slices and the rest of the rosemary leaves. Cook for another hour.

Serve with mashed pumpkin and sweet potato.

I declare my bunny experiment a success!

This dish is based on the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef book. Have I mentioned I absolutely love Jamie Oliver? Maybe not.

(served with soft polenta)

It was quite easy to make. Basically, you put two chicken breasts with various ingredients in a foil bag and bake them in the oven until it’s nice and juicy.

For two people, you’ll need:

1. 2 chicken breasts – about 500 g. (if they are skin on, use less butter)
2. 4 button mushrooms, sliced
3. 4 Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
4. 3 dried porcini mushroom slices
5. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6. 1 tbsp of butter
7. 4-5 sprigs of thyme
8. 1/3 cup of white wine
9. 1/2 tsp of Vegeta gourmet stock powder
10. Good pinches of salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220′c. Line a baking dish with two pieces of foil (about the size of a shoe box). Place chicken breasts on the foil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, stock powder, garlic and thyme leaves. Top with butter, mushroom slices and pour the wine over the chicken and mushrooms. Fold the rest of the foil over the chicken to cover them and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Check the chicken breasts half way through and turn them over so they cook evenly.

I served them with polenta which was just cooked in vegetable stock with butter and grated parmasan added to it. Simply cook 1 cup of polenta according to packet instructions and add butter and cheese.

I was lazy so I got Josh to make lunch. Since I took over most of the cooking (unemployment, y’know?), I almost forgot what it was like to just sit there and wait for food to appear!

This is how he does a carbonara for two*:

1. 1/2 onion, diced
2. 2 rashers of bacon, chopped
3. 1/2 red capsicum, cut into thin strips
4. 3 button mushrooms, sliced
5. 1/4 cup of white wine
6. 1 egg
7. 1/2 cup cream
8. 1 tbsp of grated parmasan
9. 1 tbsp of grated Colby cheese
10. a pinch of dried tarragon
11. 1 tsp of dried parsley
12. 2 shakes of freshly ground black pepper
13. 200 g. of spaghetti

Cook spaghetti in hot boiling water. Add a bit of olive oil to the frying pan and sautee the onion, bacon and garlic until the onion is softened. Add mushroom and capsicum for a minute or so. Add the white wine to the vegetables and let them steam in the wine for a minute or so. Add cream, tarragon and parsley and bring to boil. Turn the heat all the way down and add in the egg, whisk very quickyly so it doesn’t scramble. Add the cheeses.

Toss the spaghetti through the sauce. Serve.

* Actually that is how he does a carbonara this time. He has a tendency to put in whatever he can find in the fridge. If you’re interested, this is how I make carbonara.

Part 2 of the $20 Mexican Feast continues…

I felt like a bit of fish and since enchilada seems to accommodate fish very well, I decided that enchilada would be perfect. I bought a nice ocean trout fillet from the fish monger (possible about 200g) and that was plenty enough for two of us. Remember to uncook the fish because you’ll have to bake it.

I ended up buying the Old El Paso enchilada kit from the supermarket which consisted of 8 (tiny!) corn tortilla and enchilada sauce. I know. It wasn’t supposed to be though. Unfortunately, my local supermarket didn’t carry corn tortilla on its own. And there was no way I was going to make enchilada with flour tortilla. So recap: corn tortilla not flour tortilla.

Note: this recipe makes 6 small enchiladas (there were 8 in a pack, used 2 for the soup)

Making the enchilada sauce

(Peeled, roasted capsicum – still steaming!)

I start by roasting a capsicum under the grill on medium for about 5 minutes on each of the four sides until the skin blackened and blistered. Cover and rest the capsicum. The steam will continue to cook the capsicum until soft. Peel the capsicum, discard the seeds and chop it into piece.

(Adding roasted red capsicum, fresh chilli and coriander to prepacked sauce)

Bring the pre-packed enchilada sauce to boil (or if you want to make it from scratch, simmer a can of diced tomatoes, chopped onion, garlic, 1 each tsp of cumin, coriander, tumeric, salt and a bit of chilli powder for 20 minutes), add the chopped roasted capsicum, 1 chopped fresh red chilli (alter depending on how spicy you want it) and 4-5 stalk of fresh coriander chopped. The one trick I learn is to add fresh ingredients to zing up bottled sauces. It tastes fantastic like you make it from scratch!

(the sauce after fresh ingredients have been blended in)

Simmer the sauce for a few more minutes. Blend the sauce and put aside while you prepare other ingredients. I used my Sunbeam Stickmaster and I can’t rave about it enough. It was the best wedding present ever!

Making the enchilada fillings

(cooking the vegetables)

1. 200 g. ocean trout, pinboned and cut into 3 cm cubes (don’t worry about remove the skin)
2. 1/2 onion, sliced
3. 3 button mushrooms, sliced
4. 1/2 red capsicum, cut into strips
5. 1/2 yellow capsicum, cut into strips
6. Yet more coriander! Pile them on!

First of all, start by preheating your oven now to 200′C. Fry the onion, capsicum and mushroom together in a bit of oil until the vegetables soften and start to colour. Add chopped coriander. Set aside.

(pan-frying the trout)

Turn the heat way up and add oil. Cut the fish into 3cm cubes and fry very them quickly on high. No more than half a minute on two sides only. You need to really under cook the fish here because it will be baked later on as well and nothing is worse than overcooked fish.

Putting them together

Heat the sauce up and fill the bottom of a baking dish up to about 2 cm.

(putting the fillings together)

Place a corn tortilla on a plate. Spoon some vegetable filling (about 1 tbsp), place two cubes of cooked trout (the skin will come off easily here if you wish to remove it) and flatten the fish a bit. Roll the tortilla by folding the two side into the centre. Hold the side that the two ends meet up. It won’t stay close, don’t worry. Place the tortilla into the sauce in the baking dish, move the tortilla in the sauce a bit and then turn it upside. So now you end up with the sealed part at the bottom and the other side nicely sauced. Are you confused yet? This is basically to dispense with the need to spoon more sauce on top of each enchilada. It gets messy so I do it this way. Do the same for the rest of the enchilada. It’s important to use a baking dish that fits all of your enchilada properly.

(bake until the cheese melts)

Sprinkle with some grated cheese. Tasty is good. American Cheddar even better. But I have mozzarella. It doesn’t matter so much (imo, anyway). Bake for 10-15 minutes until the cheese melts.* We don’t really have the luxury of baking it until it’s nice and golden because the fish will be overcooked. If you’re using another meat, or like to cook the hell out of your fish, I recommend baking it for longer.

* The more I think about it, I should have just grilled it so the cheese will melt and browned and the fish won’t overcook. Ah well. Next time.

The Menu

Entrée
Steamed sweet corn on the cob

Main
Grilled rib eye steak, served with zucchini, mushrooms, potato au gratin and horseradish sauce

Dessert
Cherry and cheese strudel with luxurious chocolate ice cream

Steak was long overdue in our household. So to kick off the premiere of the $20 feast, I settled on a nice piece of rib eye, which, in my opinion, is the best cut of steak out there. It does need a little bit of work and tender, loving care though!

Please note that I’m not a butcher, so I might not be using the correct terms in describing things.

Grilled rib eye steak

(Rib eye – straight from the butcher)

This is what you’d get from the butcher. The meat would be held together by a bit of string (see the bit of string sticking out from the lower right hand corner?). Remove that string and, with a sharp knife, take out  the bit of fat that’s in the middle. Don’t throw it away!

(The rib eye with the fat from the middle removed)

Cut a clove of garlic into thin slivers and place the garlic slivers and half a spring of rosemary where the fat use to be. Cut the fat into small pieces. Make a few incisions all over the steak and stuff the pieces of fat into those incisions. Turn over and do the same on the other side. Sharpen the picked end of the rosemary and use it to hold the cut of meat together.

(the rib eye studded with fat, rosemary and garlic)

By studding the meat with its own fat, it ensures that the meat stays moist and tender while it’s cooking. I cook my steak on a cast iron griddle pan. I recommend you buy one for your meat. I recommend you buy one at a barbecue equipment shop where they sell them for less than $15 rather than paying $40+ in a homeware store.

Get your pan nice and hot. It should be too hot for you to hold your palm a few centimetres from it. No need to oil you meat as it’s fatty enough. Keep the heat on very high and bung it on.

(the steak after 4 minutes on one side)

This piece of steak is about 1.5 inches thick. I grill it for 2 minutes, turn it around 90 degrees (note: you’re not turning it over, you’re turning it around to achieve the criss-cross pattern on the steak) and wait another 2 minutes. So4 minutes on very high on one side, turn it over and do the same on the other side. Total cooking time on the stove should be 8 minutes (4 on each side) for a medium rare. Please don’t ruin your nice steak by cooking it anymore than this!

Take the griddle pan and place it in the oven along side your potato au gratin to finish up for 10 more minutes.

Potato au gratin and vegetables

Cut 3 potato cross wise into thin slices (about 3mm thick), line them up in a shallow baking dish. Top with some cheese sauce and mozzarella (or any melting cheese) and bake at 200′ C for 25-30 minutes.

(grilled zucchini and mushrooms)

Cut half a zucchini into thin slices length-wise, brush with a bit of oil and grill along side the meat. Turn over after one minute. Remove from the pan.

Thickly slice 3-4 button mushrooms and sautee with a bit of butter and wine until browned. Season with salt and pepper. Wrap the vegetables up in a piece of foil to keep warm in the oven.

Remove the corn silk , peel back the corn husk and rinse the corn under running cold water. Cover the corn with the husk. Steam in the microwave on high for 4 minutes for each cob.

(the shared platter)

I served the lot up on a shared platter because the steak was too big for just the one of us. We plate our own food. It felt like being at a steakhouse after ordering a share platter (hey! mission accomplished!)

(my plate)

(zooming in on the steak!)

I ate the steak with a little bit of salt and some bottled horseradish sauce from Ikea. That was very yummy. The steak was perfectly cooked and tender. We had the corn plain, but you can easily butter it and add whatever you want.

(The potato went perfectly well with the steak)

(The zucchini and mushrooms round the whole thing off nicely)

The trick to put everything together is, of course, timing. You must eat the steak as soon as it’s ready. Never let it sit around! The great steak does not wait for you, you wait for the steak.

(Cherry and cheese strudel from the deli)

As if that wasn’t enough food, I served up the cherry and cheese strudel ($7.50 – large enough for four serves) that I bought from the deli at the market. We had it with a bit of chocolate ice cream to top it off.

That was a feast indeed!

The Bill

Total $19.18

1. Rib eye steak (450g.) ______________  $10.45
2. Potatoes                          ______________   $0.70
3. Sweet corn                     ______________   $1.98
4. Button mushrooms    ______________   $0.60
5. Zucchini                          ______________   $0.30
6. Cheese                             ______________    $0.10
7. Seasonings                     ______________    $0.30
8. Strudel                             ______________    $3.75
9. Ice cream                       ______________    $1.00

Is what I call this breakfast. I always like a bit of nice cooked breakfast on the weekend.

It’s made up of:

1. 2 scrambled eggs
2. fried tomato
3. buttered spinach and pinenuts
4. mushrooms
5. toasted sourdough corn bread

Start by putting a little bit of butter in the non-stick frying pan and add mushrooms. On one side, add two tomato halves, cut side up. Keep moving the mushrooms and tomato around until the mushroom is browned. Turn the tomato halves over. Remove the mushrooms. Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of those quick things that I do up for lunch when I’m at home. This one is more like glass noodles stir-fried with whatever-I-find-in-the-fridge – typical really.

You’ll need (for one person):

1. 1 Chinese sausage, sliced
2. 1 small packet of glass noodles, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water*
3. 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4. 1/2 zucchini, sliced
5. 4 mushrooms, thickly sliced
6. 1 tomato, chopped into big chunks
7. 1 egg
8. 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
9. 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce

Heat up a tbsp of oil in a hot wok and toss in the Chinese sausage slices. Stir until the sausage slices are browned. Add garlic, zucchini, mushrooms and tomato. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes until the vegetables soften.

Push the veggie aside, add a little bit more oil and crack in an egg. Wait until the egg white is almost set before scrambling it around with the vegetables. Add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, chopped tomato and the glass noodles. Stir fry until the noodles soften. Add water if necessary.

Done! Definitely one of those 10-minute ones.

* Glass noodles are thin, clear noodles made from mung beans. Start by soaking the glass noodles in warm water first before you prepare things. Don’t add boiling or hot water to the glass noodles or they will turn to mush when you attempt to stir fry them.

This is the eternal lunch favourite in Thailand. Of course, they make it much nicer and spicier.

Basil (grapow) in this case means the holy basil, which isn’t the same as the Thai basil (horapa) here in Australia. You can get fresh Thai basil in abundance here in Australia as they seem to be much more hardy in this climate. I have tried growing the holy basil here in Melbourne and it just didn’t do well even in Summer. So in general, if you go to a Thai restaurant and order a pad grapow, you’ll most likely end up with a pad horapa instead.

Not here to teach you Thai! This is a cooking/food porn blog and so we must get on. In fact, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t authentic Thai cooking either. Just because I’m Thai doesn’t mean I cook Thai food properly, aii?

We like our veggies – so I toss a lot of vegetables in. I use (again for two people):

1. 1/2 carrot, cut into thin strips
2. a handful of long beans
3. 5 mushrooms, thickly sliced
4. half an onion
5. 1 red chilli (deseeded and cut into strips – I deseed this one because it’s really, really hot)

Together with:

1. 1 chicken breast, sliced
2. 2 tbsp of pre-made pad grapow* sauce
3. 1 tbsp of fish sauce
4. 1 tbsp of oyster sauce (I prefer Thai oyster sauce)

Start off by browning the chicken in a bit of oil on a really nice and hot wok. If you’re using the premade pad grapow sauce, then add that. Otherwise, pound together 3 cloves of garlic and 2 hot chillis (this obviously depends how much of a pussy you are when it comes to chilli) with a little bit of salt. Add that to the chicken. Season with the fish and oyster sauces. Add the carrot, onion, beans and ‘shrooms and stir fry for a few minutes until the vegetables are cooked. If you’re using fresh basil leaves, throw a handful in and turn off the heat.

Serve it with rice and Thai-style fried egg (below).

I made three portions so Josh can take the leftover for lunch.

Fried egg, Thai-style

It’s common to serve this basil stir fry with a fried egg. Crack a fresh egg into a bowl. Heat 3 tbsp of oil (yes, you’re almost deep frying it here) in a very hot wok. Carefully pour the egg in and fry it for about 3 minutes until the bottom is crispy but the yolk is still runny.

* Two reasons why I use the premade sauce when I’m not really a big fan. Firstly I found a packet which my uncle had left behind when he stayed over while we were on our honeymoon so I figured I would use that up. Secondly, there’s no other way to get the real grapow in Australia anyway.

Leftover rice that has been sitting in the fridge works wonders. Fry in a really hot wok with some oil, prawns, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, a dash of soy sauce, a dash of oyster sauce. Serve with a slice of lemon.

It takes 10 minutes. Tops.