Did someone say HALOUMI?

I love you, Landmark Plaza.  You do come up with some delightful surprises sometimes, don’t you?  The day I returned to Dili after our xmas holidays and perused your many fridges, all the stars aligned.  I was meant to have this haloumi.  I don’t even care that it cost something like $13.  This relationship was meant to be. 

So, stuff the healthy crap!  Let’s fry up some squeaky, cheesy goodness and get this year started properly!

The accompanying risotto is purely a bed on which to lovingly place the bubbling, yellow, oozing cheese, so you can ad-lib as per your available ingredients.  I had eggplant, green beans and spinach and some wholegrain mustard in the fridge.  This latter ingredient has made frequent appearances in my risottos ever since my friend and former flatmate, AB, introduced it to me back in our old Juliett Street days.  I urge you to try it.  It adds some good flavour especially if, like us, you don’t have any vegetarian stock cubes lying about and/or are too lazy to make your own veggie stock, and so can only cook the rice in water.  

Fried haloumi atop a mound of eggplant risotto

For the haloumi:

2 x 1cm thick slices squeaky cheese (aka haloumi)

Drizzle olive oil

Lemon wedges, to serve

For the risotto:

1 medium eggplant, sliced about ½ cm thick (I used 3 long skinny ones because that’s all we get here)

½ cup olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 ½ cups uncooked Arborio or carnaroli rice

1 cup dry white wine

 4 cups (approx) chicken/vegetable stock OR water (try not to make it water if you can help it)

Zest of half a lemon, finely grated (optional – if you like lemons a lot)

2 tsps wholegrain mustard

10 green beans (or 3 snake beans, etc), chopped

A handful of spinach leaves, roughly chopped

1 cup(-ish) fresh parmesan cheese, finely grated

A handful of chopped, fresh herbs (e.g. parsley, basil or oregano)

Salt and pepper

First, put your stock in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.

Meanwhile, fry up the eggplant.  Make sure the pan is hot before adding about half the olive oil and then the eggplant slices, in batches.  Fry until golden, adding more oil if necessary.  Set aside.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil and fry the onion and garlic over a medium heat until soft.  Turn the heat up to medium-high, add the rice and stir to coat with oil.  Let the rice toast for a bit – it might get a bit dry and sticky on the bottom of the pan – this is ok, but keep stirring it so it doesn’t burn.

Add the wine, close your eyes and nod your head in satisfaction at the sizzle and the aroma!  Keep stirring!

When most of the wine has been absorbed, add a ladle of the hot stock while continuing to stir the rice.  And then once that liquid has been absorbed, add another ladle.  Continue this process, stirring all the while until such time as you think the rice is almost cooked – it shouldn’t be too gluggy or soft; it should still have some “bite”, but not crunch.  Also, the heat should be adjusted so that it isn’t furiously boiling, but you’ve got some good bubble action happening.  Got that?  Excellent!

Just before you add the final ladle of stock, add the lemon zest, mustard, beans and spinach.  Give it another good stir and add your final ladle.  This should finish cooking the rice perfectly.  Turn off the heat, stir in the parmesan, herbs and seasoning and then whack on the lid to rest for five minutes, while you bring out the star of the show:  The Haloumi.

Heat a small frying pan over medium heat.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and the haloumi slices.  Cook on both sides until golden and bubbling.

Now, without delay (preferably while the haloumi is still cooking), plate up the risotto to await the piping hot cheese.  Squeeze over your lemon and a grinding of pepper and eat immediately.

KAPAOW! CHICKABAH! Healthy meal number 2!

2011 is starting off with all sorts of healthy goodness!  If that lentil salad wasn’t enough for you, this one is surely going to make you glow.

It is impossible to eat a lunch of rice paper rolls and feel anything but cleansed.  And they are really therapeutic to make – you get all the ingredients prepared and then the production line can begin, with everyone taking turns to soak their rice paper and then assemble their rolls.  You can make them as simple or as decadent as you like, but try focussing your vegetables on the crunchy type.  I like a dipping sauce of traditional Thai flavours (fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and chilli) or otherwise just sweet chilli sauce.  I also add avocado, fried tempeh, tofu or shredded omelette for a bit more oomph.

Rice paper rolls

Rice paper rounds (about 3 or 4 per person)

Thin rice (vermicelli) noodles

A selection of crunchy vegetables cut into batons such as carrots, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts (the freshest you can get)

Roasted peanuts or cashews, chopped

The rice paper can be soaked in cold water (no need for hot) until it becomes malleable.   The noodles will need to be soaked in hot water until soft, and then drained.

Arrange all ingredients on a platter and get ready to roll.  When rolling, may I suggest that you do not try to put in too much filling – your roll will simply fall apart.  And if you plonk it approximately one third from the bottom and side edges, you should have big enough flaps to fold over.  He he.  Flaps.

For this particular lunch I also made a mango salad.  It was going to be a green mango salad, but the green mangoes I bought were unexpectedly ripe inside, so it was quite sweet and mushy, rather than tart and crunchy.  It was still pretty good though.  Ooh, and the other thing I’ve started getting into here in Timor is finely sliced lime, rind and all, used in Thai-style salads and sambals with lots of chilli and salt.  It’s surprisingly good, especially if you are a big fan of limes like I am.

Mango salad

2 firm mangoes, grated/shredded

5 red shallots (the small ones), finely sliced (can substitute eschallots or red onion)

½ punnet cherry tomatoes, halved and squashed

½ a lime, very finely sliced

1 large red chilli, finely sliced

A handful of roasted peanuts, chopped

Fish sauce, to taste

Lime juice, to taste

Palm sugar, to taste (if you're using ripe mangoes you will not need much sugar, if any)

Chuck all ingredients into a big bowl.  Give it a stir, making sure the fish sauce, lime juice, chilli and sugar give a good sweet/sour/salty balance.  You know the drill.

Salad can now be part of the assembly line for THE HEALTHIEST LUNCH IN THE UNIVERSE!

A New Year’s salad to get you off to a flying start

Welcome to 2011!  Nice to see you again!

I’m back in the beach shack after a lovely xmas break in Sydney, where I managed to eat almost as many laksas as there were days in the holiday.  I was a little light on the baklavas this time – much to my utter disappointment – but managed to get my fill of sweetness by way of some homemade coconut cookies (a present from my nephew), a few too many Ferrero Rochers, and copious amounts of pudding, custard and ice-cream.

Needless to say, I have been looking forward to getting back to the simple life again – home cooking in a place with limited food resources is certainly one way to do it.  To help us along, yesterday I planted some new seeds in the garden - sweet corn, eggplant, cucumber, bok choi, basil, rocket, coriander and dill.  I'm looking forward to watching them grow and, eventually, eating them.  Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.  It's the rainy season in Timor at the moment, so we don't need to worry too much about watering the garden - we just need to hope for a little sunshine from time-to-time.

So, with all this veggie planting yesterday, I fancied a vitamin-laden dinner last night.  After a quick consultation with Stephanie* I came up with this very simple and tasty salad.  The lentils and spinach gave me the super nutrition that I was craving, the sultanas added a welcome sweet surprise to every few mouthfuls, the anchovy and feta was nice and salty, the pine nuts gave crunch and the beetroot, tomato and carrot made it look pretty.  Don’t be fooled by the long list of ingredients though – this was really quick to make and allows for much improvisation.

Lentil and Spinach Vita-Salad

1 cup brown lentils, soaked for 2 hours (reserve 1 cup liquid)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 anchovy fillets (optional)

1 handful sultanas

1 bunch spinach leaves, torn

1 carrot, grated

2 medium (or a punnet of cherry) tomatoes, chopped

2-3 baby beets (fresh or canned – doesn’t really matter), chopped

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Drizzle good olive oil

Handful pine nuts or walnuts, toasted

Black pepper and, if not using anchovies, salt

Approx 1 Tbsp goat’s feta per person, crumbled.

Fry off the onion and garlic in a frying pan over medium heat until soft but not coloured.  Place the anchovies over the top of the onion and leave for a minute or two – they will “melt”.  Chuck in the sultanas and then the lentils with the reserved liquid.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are al dente and liquid has absorbed.  Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly.

Stir in the spinach leaves – how much they wilt will depend on how long you leave the lentil mixture to cool – this is a personal thing.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients, leaving the feta till last to crumble over the individual serves.

Can be eaten warm or cold.

* As in Stephanie Alexander’s cooking bible, The Cook’s Companion.

Moroccan Lamb Shanks with pumpkin and sultanas and Mulberry-ade @ Mum’s place

Mum's place

There’s nothing like a good ol’ lamb shank with your dear ol’ mum, is there? 

I’m not quite sure what it is about mums and slow cooking, but it’s all very comforting, and, perhaps combined with some sort of menstrual-related need for iron, I was craving a real fall-off-the-bone meat dish.  So we went with this one:

Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Pumpkin and Sultanas 

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 lamb shanks, French trimmed

2 medium onions, chopped

1 x 420 can chopped tomatoes

1 x thumb-sized piece ginger, grated

1 bunch coriander, chopped

½ cup water

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (140g) sultanas

300g peeled pumpkin

Preheat oven to 180 degrees/160 fan forced.

Heat oil in a large pan.  Add lamb shanks. Cook until well browned all over. Transfer lamb shanks to a tagine or ovenproof dish.

Add onions to the same pan, cook, stirring, until soft and golden.

Add tomatoes, ginger, coriander, water, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and sultanas. Bring to the boil, then pour mixture over lamb shanks in dish.

Cover the dish and cook for 1 hour.

Cut pumpkin into chunky cubes.  Remove lamb from oven; add pumpkin, cover and return to oven for another 30 minutes.  Remove lid, cook for a further 30 minutes or until lamb is very tender.

**

We served it with minted, buttered couscous and steamed asparagus, which was just what we had on-hand.

I also made my favourite (and ridiculously easy) dolloping condiment:  Tahini and yoghurt – simply mix equal-ish quantities of tahini and yoghurt and dollop on anything that resembles Middle-Eastern/North African fare.  It’s simply delicious.

Mulberry-ade

I think my parents live in the most quintessential of suburban streets – in the old fashioned sense.  All the neighbours know each other’s names, they talk to each other over the fence and they offer lemons and, in this instance, mulberries, from their over-abundant trees.  Thanks to the very neighbourly “Pat”, for making this lovely pre-dinner refreshment possible.

2 cups mulberries, stalks removed

2 cups water (approx.)

½ cup sugar (approx – depends on how sweet you want them to be)

Soda water

Ice

Swizzle stick

Put the mulberries into a heavy-based saucepan and add enough water to just cover them.  Sprinkle over the sugar and gently bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Cool.

The fruit (and some of the juice*) can now be used as a base for pies, crumbles etc.

Fill tall glasses with ice.  Extract a couple of tablespoons of the liquid per glass and top with soda water.  Stir intermittently and thoughtfully with swizzle stick.

* NB – if you’re making a crumble, don’t do what I did and not include any liquid at the bottom of the pie dish.  This made the crumble come out really dry and the fruit sticky.  It needs to be moist!

Roast Whole Snapper with Fennel and Olives @ Nin’s place

The main course for Janine’s and my Wollongong cook-off was this little number, courtesy of Neil Perry.  I’m a big fan of many of the flavours used here: anchovies, capers, fennel, olives.   They are fresh, salty and flavourful, reminding me of a lazy afternoon by the sea somewhere in the Mediterranean.  We were in the ‘Gong, which isn’t too far removed.

4 small whole snapper, each weighing 400 – 500g or 1 large one weighing about 1.5-2kg.

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced

2 tablespoons oregano, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme, chopped

60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil

 1 red capsicum, cut in half and finely sliced

3 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and quartered

2 tablespoons salted baby capers, well rinsed and drained

6 anchovies

150g Ligurian olives

Sea salt

250ml white wine

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°. Take a roasting tin and check that it fits your fish; use two tins if necessary. Scatter the onion, fennel, oregano and thyme over the bottom of the tin and drizzle with half the extra virgin olive oil. Put the fish on top and cover with the capsicum, tomato, capers, anchovies and olives. Salt liberally and pour the rest of the oil and the wine over. Cook the smaller fish for 25 minutes, or until cooked, basting every 5 minutes, and the larger fish for 1 hour. Place the fish on individual plates or on a platter. Spoon the sauce and vegetables over and add the parsley and pepper. Serves 4.

**

This was perfect served with boiled new potatoes and steamed greens.  Michael (Janine’s husband) and I washed ours down with some nice Verdelho and I got a bit pissy. 

Roast Garlic Prawns in the shell @ Nin’s place

Nin's place

On a visit to my friend Janine’s new house in Wollongong, we got a bit creative for dinner.  After being in Timor for so long, where browsing through cookbooks is fraught with limitations and negative self-talk (“There are no avocados in the market today, so no guacamole for us”, “Mmmm...SORBET! Oh, that’s right.  No electricity.” etc.), I was really enjoying the freedom of being able to open a cookbook at random and say, “I’m going to cook THAT today”, knowing full well that I could.  Yay!

Rather than choosing at random however, I perused Janine’s collection of cookbooks with great scrutiny, and finally decided on these tasty little morsels:

From Good Weekend magazine

16 prawns, shell on but snipped down the back and de-veined

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp sea salt

50mLs olive oil

1 bunch parsley, chopped

100mL white wine

Marinade

50mLs olive oil

4 cloves garlic, smashed to make a paste

Stir prawns into the marinade ingredients and set aside for half an hour.

Meanwhile, grind fennel seeds, peppercorns and salt in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to make a powder.  Mix this in with the prawns.

Heat a wok over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Add the olive oil, prawns and the marinade and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the parsley and white wine, cooking for 30 seconds and then turn out onto a plate to serve. 

No need to get the napkins ready as these are finger-lickin’ good.

An unexpected trip home

Faced with a sudden opening in my very busy East Timor schedule (not), I made a spontaneous decision to take a little holiday in Sydney, which just so happened to coincide with the holidays of my lovely friends, Daniel, Di and Regis (and Thomas and Livia). We relived the old Juliett St/Don St days in a little apartment in Manly with much hilarity and it goes without saying that we were all feelin’ the love. 

But we’re here to talk food, so let’s get down to business.

In short, food was consumed in abundance (I have already facebooked my “baklava-a-day” indulgence – that was just the start of it).  I had the opportunity to sample a few new Sydney haunts, to reacquaint myself with a few old favourites, as well as making my own creations in the kitchens of my family and friends (while revelling in the novelty of going into a greengrocer and finding all the ingredients for any recipe I cared to make at my fingertips). 

I got a bit sidetracked on my foodie photography endeavours at a number of social engagements (having too much fun) and failed to take photos of some of the awesome food I was eating, but I managed to get a few in.

NEW PLACES:

Braza:  www.braza.com.au, 313 Barrenjoey Road, Newport

Biro (left) and Daniel – reunited and grinning.

Our lovely Brazilian friend, Biro (aka Andre) has opened up two churrascaria (Brazilian barbecue) restaurants in the last couple of years – one in Leichhardt and one in Newport. 

Braza is not for the faint-hearted – the meat options are many.  Swords of skewered and barbecued pork, beef, chicken, sausages, chicken hearts, prawns and even pineapple, suddenly appear in front of you, borne by waiters eager to slide off a sausage or slice some picanha (“the best” cut of beef rump) for your plate. 

Picanha – Photo courtesy www.braza.com.au.

Being a part-time vegetarian I went easy on the red meats but did get some yummy samples of pork and chicken.  The pork sausages went particularly well with the barbecued pineapple and salad.

Copious jugs of caipirinhas were consumed, followed by red wine, followed by cachaça and beers back at the apartment in Manly... until finally this happened:

Chehade El Bahsa & Sons Lebanese sweets:  288 Chapel Road, Bankstown

As I said, I ate a baklava a day on this trip, and while the one I had at El Bahsa wasn’t my first, the 1.5kg tray I bought to take away ensured that it wasn’t my last.  The sweets here, in my opinion, have the perfect amount of syrup.  In the shop I scoffed a coconut semolina cake which I did enjoy, but nothing beats their pure, simple, nutty baklava.

Mamak: www.mamak.com.au, 15 Goulburn St, Haymarket, NSW

Woohoo!!!  A roti restaurant!!!

I love Malaysian food – most people who know me are all-too-aware of my laksa obsession, but another of my Malaysian fixations is roti.  The flaky, chewy (yet slightly crunchy) round of fried dough dipped into a rich, cinnamon-spiced coconut milk fish curry is something I adore and there is no other place I’ve found that does it better than Mamak (although it was chicken curry in this instance).  Lots of others must think so too, given the queue outside (but thanks to troopers AB and Caomhan who did most of the painful stuff, the rest of us pretty much just waltzed straight in - xx).

OLD FAVOURITES:

Barmuda: 283 Australia Street, Newtown

This is my absolute favourite place to eat brunch in Sydney.   I had the apple, berry and oat bread with mixed berries, which was delicious, but I had a twinge of food envy when I tasted the ricotta hotcakes.  Oh. My. God.  I would love a recipe for these. 



Did I detect a hint of LEMON?  Awesome.

Almost everyone at the table opted for sweet breakfast options, which is unusual in my circles (must have had something to do with all the meat we’d consumed at Braza).  EVERYONE left smiling.

I love you, Barmuda.

An Restaurant: 29 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown

This place should be called An “Pho” Restaurant, because although there are other things on the menu, nobody ever seems to order anything else BECAUSE THE PHO IS SO GOOD.  In short, Pho (pronounced “fir”) is a Vietnamese beef noodle soup in a clear broth.

I cannot believe that it’s possible to feel cleansed after eating beef.  And I hardly ever eat red meat these days so my constitution doesn’t normally take too well to sudden blasts of it.  The Pho at An
Restaurant made me feel as if I had just devoured a sacred herbal anti-ageing tonic.  It is the lightest and most delicate soup ever. 

The beef is sliced very thinly and is raw when first added to the bowl with the flat, slippery rice noodles.  Once the hot stock is poured in, the meat is cooked very lightly, so it still has a pink tinge to it.  The fresh bean sprouts, Thai basil and lemon – served on the side to be added as liberally as you like - only add to the cleansing effect.

Janine and I both ordered a large bowl, which I almost managed to defeat, however I was so full that my ribs were hurting by the end of it.  That did not, however, stop me from wishing that I was hungry again so I could have another one.  Nor did it stop me from eating baklava for dessert (see above).

HOME COOKIN':

I’ll put all the recipes in separate entries, but, in short, they were:

Roast garlic prawns in the shell

Roast whole snapper with fennel and olives

Broad bean, mint and goat’s fetta salad

Moroccan lamb shanks with pumpkin and sultanas

Mulberry-ade

Photo courtesy of www.alittlebitofcardomom.blogspot.com.