Fermented Hot Sauce

This is great but not really an original idea from me. When I initially made this I did a batch of Jalapeño and a batch of 7 Pot Douglah Chilli's. They are a bit niche but a mate of mine gave them to me. They are very similar to Caroliner Reapers, stinking hot however very fruity in flavour. They taste great but they are evil.. I imagine this recipe would work well with any type of chilli. I plan on doing a version of this with mango in the very near future with Jalapeño. Anyway, it is worth the effort.

Edit: 

I have refined the recipe somewhat which is now reflected in the recipe below.

Mango happened and it is rad.

1 L brine (3 tbs salt, tbs sugar per L)

20 Caroliner Reapers 

2 tubs cherry tomatoes (400-500gms) halved

5-10 cloves garlic

2 onions sliced

Pepper

3 tbs sugar

2 cup vinegar

1/2 tsp Xanthun Gum optional

Mango/Pineapple Alternative

Swap the tomato for the same amount of mango and/or pineapple

Swap the Caroliner Reapers for Jalapenos 

Combine all ingredients except for the vinegar in a large jar and seal, filling with brine to the top of the jar. Let sit for two weeks on the benchtop. After two weeks, drain the brine veg from the brine (reserving the brine). Blend the fermented vegetable mess with 1/2 cup of brine and 2 cups of vinegar and additional sugar. Check for seasoning and add more brine, vinegar, salt or sugar as required for taste and consistency. 

If doing with Jalapeño, they do not tend to break down as much as they are quite thick skinned, it may end up looking a bit more like salsa. 

Use on tacos, eggs, avo on toast, everything really. Enjoy

Caroliner Reaper Salt

Deadly but awesome. By itself it is very very hot however, on/in a dish it is very doable - my kids eat it. Do not make Margaritas with this. Kidding, do it, you will suffer however... 

20 Caroliner Reaper Chilli's

300gms Table Salt

Place the chilli's on a baking tray and bake for 8 hours at 80C for 8 hours. Leave to properly dry overnight in the oven. Blitz in a blender then smash in a mortar and pestle with some of the salt. Mix through the salt. Done

Pulled Brisket with Pan BBQ Sauce

This is almost too easy for the insane result. All things told, about an hour in prep, five hours slow cook, twenty minutes shredding, days drooling.
First time I cooked this we did brioche rolls with a little mayo and some basic slaw. I'm quite certain that is how it will continue into the future.
The meat costs about $30 for 3kg but there is easily 20 servings in it and the sauce that comes from the pan juices is killer. Pay the fine, do the time.

N.B. You will need a really big pan.

I needed a bigger pan...

1 piece brisket about 3kg
Paprika
Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Salt and pepper
Oil and butter

Brine:
4 liters water
1 cup salt
125g brown sugar
1 stick celery roughly chopped
1 onion roughly chopped
1/2 handful pepper corns
6 bay leaves
Handful of thyme/parsley/rosemary
1/2 a lemon

Got a bigger pan 2nd time around

1 chilli split

Rough chopped:
2 onions
3 stalks celery
2 carrots
6 garlic cloves
1 thumb ginger
6 mushrooms
3 slices bacon
Stems and roots from 1 bunch coriander
Handful parsley
Fist of thyme
Some sage leaves
10cm of rosemary

6 bay leaves
1 satchell tomato paste
500ml chicken stock
3 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
1 tbs chilli flakes
3 tbs tomato sauce
3 tbs barbecue sauce

To finish:
2 spring onions chopped
1 bunch coriander tops topped
Lime juice

Dissolve the sugar and salt in 1 litre of water on the stove top. Combine with the rest of the water and ingredients, bashing the garlic and squeezing the lemon (include the lemon in the brine too). Place brisket in the brine, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Prep all of the veg/bacon/herbs/sauce and have ready to go. Remove the brisket from the brine and pat dry with kitchen towel. Sprinkle a generous amount of paprika, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, salt and pepper with some oil all over the brisket and rub in. Heat a large and deep (at least 30cm in diameter) frying pan or roasting dish to medium high and when to temperature throw in some butter and some oil to stop it from burning. Place the brisket in, fatty side down first and fry until you get some decent colour. Turn the brisket over and repeat. Remove from the pan to a clean plate.
Pour in the chopped veg, garlic, ginger, bacon, herbs, chilli into the frying pan and saute. If necessary add some more oil to prevent it from burning. As you are cooking the veg, scrape all the colour off of the bottom of the pan as you go. After 4 or 5 minutes squeeze in the tomato paste and cook off, stirring through. Add the tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and chicken stock.

Return the brisket to the pan or roasting dish, baste it and cover with a lid or foil. Place in a preheated 140C oven for 5 hours. Remove the foil and place back in the oven raising the temperature to 170C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and check if it is 'fork tender'. Remove the brisket to a large bowl. Remove as much fat un-rendered fat from the meat and set aside as you can, allowing to cool slightly.

Pour the contents of the pan into a medium sized saucepan and blot away the fat with paper toweling until all removed. Remove the bay leaves, add some salt and pepper then blend the sauce with a hand blender until it is a thick and smooth consistency. Set aside.

Return 3tbs of the fat to the bowl with the meat. Shred the fat and meat with two forks until it is all quite stringy. Mix a few tablespoons of the sauce to the shredded meat adding more if required. To finish, stir through chopped the spring onion, coriander and a decent squeeze of lime.

Cumin and Cayenne Kale Chips

Few things are easier, cheaper and tastier. Mess around with the flavours or go natural. Too easy. Works really really well with basil too, just adjust the cooking time down.


3 - 4 kale leaves ripped (size don't matter)
Olive oil
Cumin
Cayenne pepper
Salt

Combine the cumin and cayenne and salt with some olive oil. Bake in a preheated 180C oven for five minutes or so. Remove and allow to stand for a couple of minutes to become crisp. Keep your eye on them while they cook as they suck if burnt. Enjoy.

Salsa with Pork Belly

Tonight I had a revelation.
Pork belly sauces made from the meat juices and cream etc are nice and all but you are always left feeling heavy afterwards. Today I made a very simple salsa for some taco boats (lunch) and used the remainder on some pork belly (dinner). It is the first time I have walked away from pork belly feeling refreshed. The acidity from the tomato, lime and red wine vinegar just smashed through the unctuous pork fat. The salsa took a mere 5 minutes from start to finish. Whilst I wouldn't mess with the simplicity of the salsa, some mint probably would work quite nicely in there too. The photo is terrible as I hadn't anticipated that this would be anywhere near as great as what it was.

Pork belly
10 cherry tomatoes
1 tbs red wine vinegar
1/2 bunch of coriander
1/2 tbs sugar
1/4 of a red chilli
1/2 a red onion in dice
1 tbs garlic oil
Juice of half a lime
Salt and pepper
Salad of any description




Cook some pork belly, make sure you get some proper crackle on that shiz. Salt it hard cook it at about 30 mins per 500 gms at 180C and smash it in the last 20 mins at 220C. I find poultry scissors are great at dealing with crackling - pro tip.
For the salsa? Just blend the rest of the ingredients but leave it chunky. Check for seasoning and adjust with more salt and pepper or lime or red wine vinegar. Add salsa to pork, eat some salad (optional).

O
M
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Pistachio Romesco Sauce

I made Romesco sauce a few years ago and it was nice but it was hard work. Traditional Romesco sauce is made with blanched almonds and hazelnuts. To prep the hazelnuts you need to oven roast them and then rub the skins off with a tea-towel. That task sucked. Anywho the reiteration I've come up with here was simple and quick and versatile. I served this with scallops, prosciutto and guacamole but it very easily doubles as a dip.


100 grams shelled pistachios
3 slices of ciabatta crusts removed, diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
2 tsp chilli flakes
2 pinches paprika
Water


Toast the nuts and garlic in some olive oil over a medium heat. Remove to a clean plate. Add the remaining oil then toast the bread. Blitz the ingredients (only half of the vinegar) together, check for acidity and add more vinegar if required. Add water until you reach the consistency you'd like.

Dukkah Crusted Labne and Lamb Backstrap Pizza

An awesome ex-student of mine gave me some dukkah and lamb herbs for Christmas last year and I finally got around to using them. This was delicious and simple and I can thoroughly recommend giving it a go yourself. Labne is a cheese you make from yoghurt (seriously this only takes 10 minutes). The fiddliest part of this is rolling the cheese into balls and then dusting them but even then, that only takes 15 minutes. I made my own pizza bases here but I would imagine that using toasted Turkish bread or kebab bread would be just as great. The amount of oil used will seem terrifying but its only for marinating and can be re-used as part of a salad dressing, used in pesto (a nod to Tracey), or used in confit (a nod to JP). Next time I use dukkah, I think I am going to make my own. You will need to make the labne three days in advance.

1 kg natural yoghurt
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 tsp salt for the labne
45g packet of dukkah (mine was lemon and herb)
1.5 litres of extra virgin olive oil
1 lamb backstrap
Lamb herbs
Individual pizza bases
Garlic oil
Parmesan cheese
Chopped parsley
Mozzarella
Rocket
Salt and pepper
A little red wine vinegar
Some fresh parsley

Combine the salt and crushed garlic for the labne into the yoghurt. Place a muslin wrap over a bowl doubled over, pour in the yoghurt. Bring the sides of the muslin wrap in and tie around a wooden spoon then hang in a bowl. Place in the fridge for three days re-adjusting the height of the bag if necessary so that the yoghurt is not sitting in the extracted liquid.

Remove the yoghurt from the hanging bag into a clean bowl. Pinch tablespoon sized quantities out and roll into a balls, place onto a clean plate. It helps if from time to time you rinse and dry your hands, the
yoghurt does become sticky. Roll each cheese ball in the labne then place carefully into another clean bowl, throw in a little fresh parsley then cover with the olive oil.

Pre-heat an oven to 180C. Paint the pizza bases with garlic oil, sprinkle on some chopped parsley, grate over some parmesan then top with a little mozzarella. Bake until they have great colour.

Season the lamb fillet with some lamb herbs, salt and pepper. Sear on a barbecue to your liking (mine were rare). Allow the meat to rest for 10 minutes under some foil then slice very thinly. While this is happening dress the rocket in some garlic oil, some more grated parmesan and a little red wine vinegar.

Smear a labne ball on a pizza base, load up some lamb and rocket then tuck in.

Avocado and Dill Yoghurt Sauce

An incredibly quick and tasty way to finish preparing a meal. We had this the following night with some barbecued prawns which was also rad. I didn't use a great deal of dill as I can find it overpowering but go nuts if you love it. Oh, and the potatoes there, honey mustard dressing, hell yes.

1 avocado shelled
1 tbs dill sprigs
3 tbs Greek yoghurt
A little salt and pepper

Blend it.

Pesto Aioli

Hooray! Not for the faint hearted however, it is rather strong... Would work very well with some rare beef or would be great with some hot chips.

1 handful of basil
250ml extra light olive oil
1 head garlic
1/2 an anchovy fillet
1 handful pine nuts, toasted
2 egg yolks
1 tsp white vinegar
1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Wrap the head of garlic in some foil and drizzle over a little oil. Roast in a 180C oven for about 20 minutes or until soft, remove and allow to cool. In the meantime, blitz the basil with the oil and allow to infuse while the garlic cooks and cools. Drain through a fine sieve or muslin wrap and discard the solids. Grind the garlic, pine nuts and anchovy fillet in a mortar and pestle until it is a fine paste. In a mixing bowl using an electric whisk incorporate the garlic mixture with the egg and vinegar then gradually introduce the oil in a thin stream until it is all gone. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Mix and check for seasoning adding more of what is missing.

Calamari Balls

This recipe (though slightly bastardised) came from a student of mine. Good bloke with a real love of food. This is as simple as it is cheap. Squid tubes are very economical and as the mixture is combined with milk, you effectively cannot over cook it! Hooray! Thanks Josh.

500 gms squid tubes
1 chilli de-seeded
Zest of 1 lime
1 coriander root (or leaves)
1 tsp garam marsala
Milk
Bread crumbs
2 eggs beaten
Flour
Oil for frying


Rough chop the squid tubes then blitz with the chilli, lime zest, coriander, a little salt and 1 tbs of milk until it forms a paste. If it is too dry, add a little more milk. If you've added too much you can drain it later. Cover and place in the fridge overnight. Heat the oil to a high temperature. Make 1 tbs sized balls of the squid goo. Season the flour with salt and the curry paste (garam marsala). Dust the balls in the flour, pass through the beaten egg then crumb. Deep fry in batches until they rise to the surface and have great colour. Drain and season with a little more salt while hot. Serve with whatever takes your fancy - I had lime wedges, teriyaki sauce and some home-made chilli jam.

Boned Leg of Lamb Stuffed with Ricotta and Corn, Almonds and Mushroom

Mothers Day din dins. For maximum effect make a trivet of veg for the lamb and half fill with water to sit on and blitz at the end to make your gravy

1 leg of lamb boned
3 tbs Barbecued Corn and Ricotta Dip
1 handful almonds
2 handfuls chopped mushroom
5 cloves garlic
1/2 tbs thyme
1 handful sage
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Water
Root veg

Blitz the almonds, 2 cloves garlic, mushroom and thyme, some salt and pepper and enough extra virgin to make it moist. Paint the Barbecued Corn and Ricotta Dip on in the inside of the meat then evenly spread out the almond/mushroom mixture. Carefully and firmly tie the lamb back up, shoving as much stuffing back inside as you can. Oil, salt and pepper and sage the lamb and rub well. Place on a trivet of veg and remaining garlic, pouring in enough water to come up to the bottom of the lamb and cover with foil. Cooking a preheated 220C oven for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180C and cook for 20 mins per 450 gms. Remove the foil 20 minutes from the end. Once finished, remove, cover, rest, make gravy, stuff yourself.

Prawn and Chicken Satay Patties

10 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking, heaps ace.



400gms chicken mince
200 gms green prawns shelled
2 tbs cashew and macadamia satay paste
1 shallot finely diced
1/2 bunch coriander chopped
1 tbs teriyaki sauce
1 egg
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup rice flour
Oil for semi-deep frying


Mince the prawns well with a knife. Combine the chicken mince, prawn mince, satay paste, shallot, coriander, teriyaki sauce, half of the bread crumbs and the egg for a couple of minutes to work the proteins. If the mixture is too wet, add more bread crumb until it holds together. Wet your hands and form the mixture into patties of whatever size you like. Set them aside until required.
Pour about 1cm of oil into a large frying pan and heat to medium high. Dust the patties in the rice flour. Fry on both sides until golden.

I served this with a ginger and coriander teriyaki dipping sauce and some srirachi chilli sauce. Unreal.

Beef Tarts with Pesto and Cummin

Simple and another opportunity to make pesto. Could easily be done on a smaller scale as a tapa or canapé.

500 g mince
2 cloves garlic minced
1 slice bacon diced
1 onion, 1/2 sliced 1/2 diced
1 tsp cumin
4 tbs pesto
2 tbs sour cream
1/2 hanful coriander leaves
3 sheets puff pastry
Salt and pepper
1/2 a capsicum sliced
1 handful mushroom sliced
1 - 2 cups grated cheese
1 tbs milk
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Preheat an oven to 180C. Sauté the diced onion and garlic in 1/2 of the oil with the bacon and cumin until soft and fragrant. Add in the mince and brown with some salt and pepper. Add in the sour cream and reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes until almost dry. Stir through the coriander and remove from the heat to cool. Spread about 1 tbs of pesto over each puff pastry sheet leaving a 1cm border. Evenly divide the flavoured mince between the pastry sheets and spread to a thin layer. Scatter about the capsicum, onion and mushrooms and top with a little cheese. Brush the sides with some milk. Drizzle over the remaining oil and some salt and pepper. Place in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes until golden, turning if necessary.

Cashew and Macadamia Nut Satay

I watched a TV chef recently smash together a satay sauce in about 2 minutes and I thought well I want to do that too. My recipe differs quite a bit from his but as my research after the fact discovered, it don't matter. I think satay is one of those 'satays are like opinions' scenarios. They can be simple or complicated. In any case, what I have done here is very very good and I can thoroughly recommend trying it. My bother in law who doesn't like satay had two helpings and was kind with his review. There is enough satay to marinade 1 - 2 kg of the meat of your choice, have enough left for being a sauce and, an additional purpose like making satay and coconut milk rice for the kids.


2 handfuls salted cashew/macadamia nuts
2 heaped tbs crunchy peanut butter
Rind of 1 lime
Juice of 2 limes (maybe more)
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger roughly chopped
1/2 bunch coriander, roots and all
200 ml of coconut milk (or to taste)
1 long red chilli
1 tbs palm sugar (or brown)
2 tbs light olive oil or peanut oil
1/2 cup water


Leaving out the water, blitz the lot until it is in a smooth paste. Check for flavours and add more lime juice, coconut milk or sugar until you reach a tasty result (there should be enough salt from the nuts). Aim for a good balance of nut, sweet and importantly, lime. Pour in half of the water, blitz, check the consistency and add the remaining and more if required.

Chicken Vegetable Pesto Bake with Wine and Blue Cheese Sauce

Unreal and simple. All left overs were mixed together and were even more awesome. The roasted lemon smells great but I wouldn't recommend eating it...




6 chicken thighs, bone in
1 or 2 tbs pesto
1 capsicum in chunks
1 medium sweet potato in chunks
5 mushrooms torn
1 lemon quartered
3 rashers bacon in chunks
5 cloves garlic skin on
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs blue cheese
1/2 cup sparkling white wine
Parsley chopped
1 chilli thinly sliced
Natural yoghurt
Cous cous
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper




Combine the vegetables,lemon wedges, garlic cloves, bacon, chicken, pesto, extra virgin, salt and pepper in a roasting dish. Roast for 30 minutes at 180C or until cooked through. Remove the chicken to a clean bowl, remove the veg to a clean bowl and cover the lot. Place the roasting tray onto the stove and bring to a simmer. Stir in the sparkling wine and continue to simmer until the alcohol smell is gone. Stir in the blue cheese until melted and then remove from the heat. Pour in any resting juice from the chicken and veg bowls, skimming off the oil if necessary. Cook the cous cous  by covering with boiling water and leaving for 5 minutes, stir through the lemon juice.
Serve on top of the cous cous, top with parsley, chilli (if having) and dobs of yoghurt on the veg. Spoon some sauce over the chicken bits.

Warmed Pesto and Yoghurt Sauce for Chicken Breast

This was brilliant and so so easy. It is a very similar recipe to my Crispy Skinned Chicken Boob with Lemon and Oregano recipe but damn it was good. I will definitely be using this concept whenever I have excess pesto. Thankfully, excess pesto season is just around the corner.



Chicken breast with skin on
Garlic sliced thickly
Salt
Pepper
Fresh Thyme
4 tbs pesto
4 tbs natural Greek yoghurt
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil


Pre-heat an oven to 180 C. Salt and pepper the chicken boobs with 1 tbs of the extra virgin olive oil and the garlic slices. Heat the remaining 1 tbs of oil to medium high. When hot, add in the chicken skin side down. Turn after 5 minutes and place in the oven. Turn again after 5 minutes and return to the oven and repeat once more. Remove from the oven and place the chicken on a clean plate. Place the frying pan back onto the stove top at medium high, when hot again, spoon in the pesto and yoghurt and stir for a couple of minutes. Spoon over you chicken boobs. So so nice.

Cherry Tomato Jam

The end of your tomato bush is bitter sweet - bummer its dying - way cool that there is so much fruit that you have to come up with new ways to deal with it. Soooo anyways, my wife volunteered me to cook tomato relish at Kindy on Friday. Never having made chutney this seemed a challenge and I thought well, if you add enough sugar to something you can turn it into jam. It was stacks of fun and the kids were radical. To add to that I thought I could preserve as much of the harvest as possible while my seedlings grow. Reality is though, after trying it - it won't last past next week - its too damn good.
Heaps easy - do it.

1 kg cherry tomato sliced in half
2 sticks lemon grass bashed and sliced
1 thumb ginger minced up
1 bottle tomato passata
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
500-600 gms raw sugar
2 tsp olive oil
Dill (or other soft herb)
Salt

Saute the lemon grass and ginger until fragrant and soft in the oil, pour in the tomatoes, passata, sugar, vinegar and stir. Bring to the boil and reduce temp to medium (otherwise it will blast all over the place), cook for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Spoon a little onto a small plate then place in the freezer for a minute or so, if after you've run your finger through it it stays parted, your done - turn off the heat, mix through a little soft herbage, a touch of salt and allow to cool enough to handle for bottling. If not, keep going until it is.

Tomato Bread V 3.0

And here this reason why my Cherry Tomato Jam will not see November... Tomato Bread versions 1 and 2 can be found here.

Some great bread thinly sliced
Extra virgin olive oil
Cherry Tomato Jam

Drizzle some olive oil over the bread, smear over 1 tsp of tomato jam and grill until aweeeesoooooome.

Rosemary and Horseradish Tapenade for Studding Roast Beef

Easy, cheap, tasty. Would be nice with most meats.

1 handful olives
1 sprig rosemary
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp horseradish cream
Pepper
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Smash up real good with a knife. Make incisions in your roast with a sharp knife then jam your finger in there to widen the hole. Roast as normal. If you have any left over, just smear it over the outside. I ran out but already had the holes so I filled them with sliced onion - it was good also.

Sage, Lemon, Garlic and Anchovy Butter

Delicious to say the least. Most people turn their noses up at anchovies but as I have said before, once they cook - they do not taste like hairy fish - they taste like awesomeness. I used this to stick under the breast skin of a chicken I was roasting to allow it to self baste and the result was mouth wateringly good. Not only did the butter melt down through the meat and crisp the skin giving it colour and a deep flavour but it also soaked into the vegetables (portabella mushrooms, leek and garlic) I had underneath which I blitzed to form the basis of a gravy. A ridiculously tasty gravy. The remaining butter I rubbed over the outside of the bird. I can see after having made this that rolling it in cling film to form a butter sausage and freezing it would be brilliant for topping cooked steaks, a marinade for prawns/chicken thighs, finishing sauces or as a great way to maybe start a risotto. Less than 5 minutes work and perfect for ingredient experimentation.

3 tbs softened butter (or more if required)
1 handful sage
2 cloves garlic
Rind of 1/2 a lemon
3 anchovy fillets (less if you are scared)
Cracked pepper

Finely mince the garlic, sage and anchovy fillets with a knife. Add in the rind and mix through the butter with a fork. Done.