Hot for Hotpot

It is now end of March. I don’t think I have seen so many snows in March as I did this past few days. It is freezing cold and wet. It feels like Christmas minus the presents and stuffed turkey.

Cold or not, spring is here, so it’s the best time for lamb (how inappropriate do you think it is to have “meat is murder” on the background while writing this?).

Let’s stop jabbering and cook some juicy lamb. I tried this lamb hotpot recipe from one of cookbooks. It best to start cooking this 3 hours before your dinner time. You’ll see why.

These what you need: 2 tbsp oil, 4 lamb shanks (I used lamb leg because I thought that ‘lamsbout’ is lamb shank in Dutch. I’ve since looked it up and it is ‘lamsschenkel’ instead of ‘lamsbout”. What ever you use, get the one with bone in it), 1 onion (sliced), 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped), 2 bay leaves, 1 tbsp sweet paprika powder, 2 teaspoon chilli powder, 1 tbsp flour, 30 g tomato puree, 700ml vege stock, 2 potatoes (chopped), 2 carrots (sliced), 2 celery stick (sliced), 2 tomatoes (seeded and chopped).

This how you prepare it: Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan on medium heat. Brown meat for about 6 minutes (this is a messy, messy job I can tell you that for sure). Drain meat on paper towels. Add remaining oil in the pan and cook onion, garlic and bay leaves on low heat for about 10 minutes, stir occasionally. Add paprika, chilli powder and flour, stir, cook for 2 minutes. Combine tomato puree and vege stock and pour them in the pan. Bring to boil, stir, put meat back in the pan, stir, reduce heat to low, let simmer with lid on for about 1 ½ hour, stirring occasionally. Now we have lamb stock.

Fish out the bay leaves and throw them away. Take the meat out, let it cool down before cutting it into small pieces (if you have real 'cook' finger you can of course cut it while it's still hot). Keep them in fridge for later. Put the stock in fridge for about 1 hour or until you can see fat forming on the surface. Discard the forming fat (we are nearly there now I promise).

Return meat along with potatoes, carrots & celery in the stock, bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for another 15 minutes. Add chopped tomato before serve. Serve with French loaf.

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight.

I promised a dear friend of mine, Scaramouche, to post a roast chicken recipe. And as it happens, I did roast chicken 2 days ago. A total coincidence, like she knows there is a whole chicken R.I.P.ing in my fridge, ready to be stuffed and roast.

I made up this recipe while doing my grocery shopping. You need a whole chicken, 1 carrot, 2 celery sticks, 6 garlic, oil, salt and pepper. Heat oven to about 250 degree Celcius. Clean and pat dry your chicken (including the cavity). Slice / chop carrot and celery stick. Crush the garlic. Stuff carrot, celery and garlic in the cavity. Tie up the chicken leg nicely using string (make sure the string is oven prove so raffia string is OUT). Rub the chicken skin with some oil, salt and pepper. Now the chicken is ready for roasting. I put roasting rack on my roasting pan so the fat drip off my chicken. Roast for about 15 minutes and then turn down the oven to about 200 degree Celcius. Roast for another 50 minutes or till the chicken is cooked (if you are anything like me, you can’t never tell if your chicken is cooked or is still flapping about, this roasting thermometer will come in handy). Baste your chicken with the oil that is dripping off your chicken in every 10 minutes or so (that’s how you get those golden crispy skin).

When it cooked, best to let the bird rests for about 10 minutes before starts cutting it, so it stay juicy & moist (you can, of course, eat them straight away if you like). Serve your chicken with some roast potato or chips or roasted vegetable or anything you like really. And don't forget the gravy.

You can of course use anything you like for stuffing. I've used onion, rosemary, thyme. They all taste good. Next time I'll share the onion and sage stuffing recipe (you can also get ready-mix stuffing from PAXO).

A Cuppa?

Tea and muffin anyone (yes, it is a muffin not a cupcake. I don't do cupcakes because cupcakes are 'cutesy' and I don't do 'cutesy' either and I don't like sugar icing.)? I haven't cooked anything worth photograph lately. I'm rather busy with thing and stuff (if you know what I mean). Food photographing needs carefully thought composition and light setting etc. Since I'm short of time (and daylight) I did this quick tea time shot. I'm a coffee person but I do like tea too (talking about hot beverage here. We'll talk about cool cold beverage some other time). Tea has lots of anti-oxidant and apparently anti-oxidant is the hype at the moment. God knows how many gallons of tea I need to drink before my body 'anti-oxidated'. I love Simon Levelt because they have all different kind of tea (they do sell coffee, but in bean form. Since I don't have those fancy espresso machine that can grind coffee, I'll stick to ground Max Havelaar / Douwe Egbert coffee). They also make killer cappuccino. Best in Utrecht apparently. Cheers!

Capturing Breakfast

I was to photographed 'breakfast scene' for my assignment . I've photographed food dozen of times but the minutes I heard the word 'assignment' my brain goes blank. The brain storming session with Irina was great, but the idea was to complicated to follow. (Thanks for your idea mate! I'll pick your brain again soon ;)). Fortunately, one day before the deadline, I managed to come up with some shots. I wasn't too happy with the shot, but it's better than come to class empty handed. Right?

Going Dutch

I like comfort food. A hearty & filling dish, especially during cold winter months. There is still a bit of winter left, so here is my favorite Dutch mash, 'andijve stampot', potatoes & endive mash serves with beef sausage.

It is easy to make. Just boil some floury potatoes until cook. Then drain the water, add in endive. Mash with a little milk & cheese. Serves with sausage & gravy. There you go, great meal for those cold winter evenings.

The first time I had swordfish steak was about 7 years ago, in Spain. I love the meaty structure & mild flavor (the inner-health conscious of me screaming "it's low calories & rich with omega-3 fat too"). I like my swordfish fish simple, grilled or pan-fried.

I cooked swordfish 3 days ago and served it with grilled vegetable pasta. I normally use ready-made grilled veggies (known as antipasto). Sandhurst has a good selection of antipastos and I especially love their artichoke. Unfortunately, I can't find Sandhurst products where I live at the moment. I therefore have to grill my own vegetables (lot's of hard work). There is probably other brand that makes the same stuff, just be careful not to buy the one with vinegar in it. The sour antipasto is great for salad but not with pasta (at least I don't think it goes well with pasta).

Ok enough yapping, let's cook. For the pasta you need about 200g tagliatelle (fresh or dried), about 150g of each of the following grilled: aubergine/eggplant, pepper/capsicum, mushroom, artichoke and 6 cherry tomatoes, olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, fresh basil and salt.

For the fish, you need swordfish fillet (you can use other fish if you like). Wash the fish & pat it dry with a paper towel. Rub some olive oil, crushed black pepper & salt on the fish. Grill the swordfish for 3 minutes on each side. The grill pan needs to be very hot before you start grilling otherwise the fish will stick to it. Put the fish steak on an oven proof dish and keep it in a warm oven with aluminum foil cover to prevent it from drying out (nobody likes dried out fish, right?).

Boil 2 liter water (cook every 100g of pasta in 1 liter water to prevent it from sticking to each other) with a little salt in a big pan to cook the pasta. In the meantime heat oil in another pan and add in garlic, stir for few minutes (don't burn them) and then add all the grilled veggies & salt to taste. Cook for about 5 minutes before adding tomatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes and turn the fire off.

Cook your pasta in the boiling water (cooking time for fresh pasta is about 4 minutes & 12 minutes for dried one). When cooked, drain the paste immediately and throw it in the veggies, add more olive oil. Add in some chopped basil leaves and warm the whole dish once again on low fire for a few minutes. Serve the grilled swordfish on top of the pasta. Finally, drizzle some lemon juice & olive oil on the dish.

I've Been aTAGged!

I’ve been tagged by Mr. Sweety and seriously, I don’t even know what tag is (*chuckle*), let alone on how to tag others. I'm new in this blogging business so pardon me for being ignorance, though ignorance is bliss ;).

The Need to Knead

I have recently bought a pasta maker and am enjoying myself making (and eating) fresh pasta. I hope by the end of next month I'll have nice sculptured arms from all the dough kneading I've been doing. Pasta dough needs to be kneaded (preferably with violence) for at least 15 minutes to activate the gluten in the flour. Gluten makes the dough elastic, so it won't tear when you roll them out. I find kneading is a great way to release tension. You can punch, fold, throw, stretch, etc. and the dough never hits you back.

You can't use just any flour you like for pasta. The flour needs to contain more gluten in it. I use grade 00 flour (the one Italians use for their pasta). I don't know if the flour is easy to get, I bought mine at this small Italian delicatessen around the corner.

Ok, let's see what you need to make your own pasta. For every 100g of flour, you'll need 1 egg (make sure the egg is at room temperature when you use it). Let say you are making pasta for 2 people, then you'll need 200g flour, 2 eggs, salt and some water. Make a "vulcano" with your flour (see above), put the egg(s) in the middle, add some salt if you like. Use fork / finger to break the yolk and mix the whole thing until it mixes well together. Now you need to get down and dirty, start using your hands to knead and fold the mixture until you get a smooth & elastic dough (it takes about 15 minutes to get to this consistency). If your dough is too dry add a few drops of water and if it's too wet add some flour. Leave the dough in a cold place for about 30 minutes before you can start working with it (cutting and shaping it to any kind of pasta you like).

So, there you go, fresh pasta. Fresh pasta only needs about 4 minutes cooking. Be careful not to overcook it as it will turn soggy & soft. Good pasta is cooked 'al dente', soft but a bit chewy in the middle.

ps.: The picture of me kneading was taken with a tripod & selftimer, in case you're wondering.