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.

Papadom Crusted Tandoori Pork Chop

This was good but when I do it again I will probably crust the meat afterwards in precooked papadoms as the papadoms didn't expand nearly as much as I though they would. Regardless, these were still fun.

5 pork loin chops
1 tbs tandoori paste
1 tbs natural yoghurt
1 packet small papadoms
Olive oil or other




Blitz the papadoms in a blender to as fine a consistency as possible. Combine the tandoori and yoghurt. Coat the pork chops in the tandoori and yoghurt mixture and set aside to marinade until required. Heat about 1cm of oil in a frying pan to medium high then reduce the heat to medium. Coat one side of each chop in the papadom crumbs then place in the pan, cooking in batches. When blood starts to come through each chop, crust the remaining side and press in. Turn the pork and fry on the remaining side until firm but with a little give (usually by the time you have nice colour). Remove to a clean plate, cover and rest.
I served this with a spiced pilaf, some dobs of yoghurt, a sprinkling of coriander and some sliced chilli for Mum and Dad. I think that a squeeze of lemon would be radical too but I didn't have any...
Enjoy!

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.

Thai Green Pork Belly with Coconut Cous Cous

Pork belly can do anything. I had some left over curry paste and I thought well, I can only try. As it turns out it works quite well indeed and is in no way overpowering. I didn't take a photograph of the cous cous as, to be honest I wasn't expecting it to be so great. The youngest Henry, absolutely smashed the cous cous. As always with pork belly, its not difficult it just requires some patience and a watchful eye at the end.

1 piece pork belly (skin scored)
1 tbs (or more) Thai green curry paste
1 onion in thin slices
5 or so mushrooms sliced
1 lemon in wedges
1 small tin coconut milk
2 cups chicken stock
Cous cous (1 cup?)
Salt
Olive oil


Rub the curry paste and salt into the skin of the pork belly along with enough oil to wet it. Scatter the pieces of onion on the bottom of your roasting tray along with the mushroom and lemon wedges. Place the pork belly on top of the veg. Pour in the coconut milk and enough of the chicken stock to come about half way up the side of the pork. Cover with foil and place in a 140C oven for 2 hours. Remove the foil and continue to roast for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, carefully remove the pork belly from the sauce, scrape off any veg from underneath then place back in the oven on a rack 2 down from under a high grill. Keep an eye on it and when crispy, remove and rest for 10 minutes or so on a clean plate.  While this happens throw a couple of handfuls of cous cous into the coconut/veg/sauce gear, remove the lemon wedges and cover with a foil. Pour any resting juice into the cous cous. Slice and serve on the cous cous. I dunno, maybe add some chopped parsley.

Green Thai Chicken, Cashew and Bean Sprout Spring Rolls

Not long ago I made a heap of Thai Green Curry paste and almost everything I have cooked since has been with it. I love having a surplus of stuff because it makes you think of ways to use it. We had prawn and avo manwhiches today with Thai green mayo for example. Anywho, this recipe was really easy. Having never made spring rolls I was expecting it to be fiddly but it was really simple. Heaps of room to move in this recipe too. I used 50/50 oil here as I didn't want the peanut flavour to dominate.

500 gms chicken mince
2 tbs Thai green curry paste
1 carrot grated
1/2 a capsicum in halved matchsticks
1 handful bean sprouts
1 handful mint chopped
2 handfuls cashews chopped
Rind of half a lemon
1 tbs kecap manis
1 handful snow peas in matchsticks
10 or water chestnuts chopped
10 or so spring roll sheets
500 ml peanut oil
500 ml light olive oil

Combine all ingredients (except the oils and spring roll sheets) in a large bowl. Lay 1 sheet of spring roll wrapper down with a corner pointing toward you, spoon in 2 tbs of the mixture into the middle and form a log. Roll up the spring roll, folding in the side as you go, sealing with a dab of water at the end. Place on a clean tray and cover. Repeat until finished. (Each time cover the remaining spring roll sheets with some moist kitchen paper to stop it from drying out, refreeze whatever is left over). Place in the fridge covered until ready.
Heat the oils in a medium saucepan until a small piece of bread fries golden in 30 seconds. Place the spring rolls in in batches and cook until golden.
I served this on coconut rice with fried shallots, more kecap manis and some sriracha (a hot chilli sauce). Unreal.

Cardamom, Cumin and Poppy Seed Spiced Lamb Fillet

This took about 5 minutes to prepare, I let it sit for an hour and BBQ'd for like, 10 minutes. Very little work heaps of enjoyment. I love dry spice rubs, they pack buckets of flavour and you can use almost any thing you have in your cupboard - experiment and see what you come up with.



1 lamb fillet (mine was 500gms)
1 tbs ground coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seed ground
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 handful cardamon pods, seeds removed
1 tbs poppy seeds
Salt (I used porcini salt)
Pepper
Olive oil


Spread the dry ingredients evenly about a plate, sprinkle on some oil, place the lamb fillet in and cover it the spiced goodness. Put on a clean plate and transfer to the fridge to let the flavours hang out until you are ready. Heat a barbecue to very high and cook the lamb for about 5 minutes each side or until medium rare. Transfer to a clean plate and cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes or so. Slice thinly at an angle and divide amongst serving plates. Spoon over a little of the resting juice and some nice extra virgin if you have it. I served this with a garden salad and some lentils.

Thai Braised Fennel

The picture for this features a half eaten portion. I wasn't expecting this to be as amazing as it was - new best ever thing I have cooked. As I just throw these things together, I am guessing about the amount of fish sauce so, the best advice I can give here is adjust as necessary. This was cheap and quick to bung together and I plan on regularly recreating this.

1 bulb fennel in 8th wedges

1 tbs olive oil

2 tsp sesame oil

2 stalks lemon grass bashed

1 thumb ginger sliced thinly

2 cloves garlic thinly sliced

1 star anise

1/3 bunch coriander

1 handful basil

1/2 tin coconut milk

2 tbs teriyaki sauce

1 tbs mirrin

1 slice prosciutto 

Juice of half a lemon

Heat the oil to medium high and sear the fennel on as many sides as possible. Add in the garlic and ginger and bashed lemon grass stalks (halve them if necessary) and fry till aromatic. Pour in the teriyaki, mirrin, juice, the stalks from the coriander, the star anise and the coconut milk. Mix about, add a lid and reduce the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for 2 hours. Grill the prosciutto until awesome then allow to cool and crisp up. Chop the herbs and prosciutto together. Check the fennel for seasoning. Spoon some fennel and sauce into clean bowls and top with the herbs and prosciutto and maybe a squeeze of lemon.

Green Curry Crab, Corn and Ricotta Dip

I made some curry paste recently and have had fun coming up with uses for it. If you haven't made your own green curry paste before, give it a go its reasonably straight forward. Coriander, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chilli, salt, lime juice, sesame oil (in my version) and another oil to keep it moist. Blend it all and then if you can be bothered, pound it some in a mortar and pestle to make sure it isn't stringy. In any case, I made this for adults to eat at a Kindy disco and surprisingly a wedge of kids ate it, fresh sliced chilli on top and all! To serve with this I halved wanton wrapper on the diagonal and deep fried them: unreal.

300 gms ricotta

1 or 2 tbs green curry paste

1 tub of picked crab meat

1 cob corn stripped

2 eschalots thinly sliced

2 tsp Chinese 5 spice

Juice of half a lime
1 avocado diced

Salt

Pepper
Olive oil

Chopped coriander

Sliced chilli

Heat some oil in a frying pan, add in the curry paste and cook for 1  minute, toss in the crab and corn and cook for another minute. Remove and add to a large mixing bowl. Combine the crab and corn with the ricotta, the eschalots, salt, pepper, Chinese 5 spice, some chopped coriander and half of the lime juice. Fold through the avocado. Check for seasoning and add more of whatever is missing - eg more lime juice, salt or pepper. Transfer into your serving dish and top with a little more lime juice, more chopped coriander and some sliced chilli. Serve with deep fried wanton wrappers.

Pistachio Satay

I have a big bag of pistachios that I don't seem to able to make a dint in, no matter how hard I try and I keep thinking of ways to use them. Pistachio pesto springs to mind right now... I am also digging on coriander at the moment - add the two and get this. I researched a heap of recipes for regular satay and every one was different. The only similarity I found was peanuts so I thought I might try and throw together a bunch of things that taste nice with some pistachios and see what happens. It tasted very good - like pistachios - maybe I could have used less coriander but even then, I liked that. Two things, I think the paste was better the second day and, use medium heat so that you don't burn the nuts. I could also see this working with coconut milk/cream. Enjoy.

2 handfuls pistachio nuts

1 tbs sesame oil

1 handful coriander

1 tsp Chinese 5 spice

2 cloves garlic

1 thumb ginger roughly chopped

Juice of 1/2 a lime

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs fish Sauce

1/2 tbs Kecap Manis

Pound the lot in a big mortar and pestle for 5 minutes or so until it forms a smooth paste.

I used this on prawn skewers and chicken thighs. Happy days.

Money Bags with Prawn

Money bags are little deep fried bags of super tasty goodness. You should eat these. Ignore the chicken skin in the ingredient picture though, that was a failed wonton wraper alternative...

1 chicken thigh

350 gms shelled prawns

2 cloves garlic

1/2 a thumb of ginger

1 handful almonds (or other nuts)

1/2 a handful corriander

1 handful basil leaves

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tbs teriyaki sauce

1 tbs rice wine vinegar

Wanton wrappers
Oil for deep frying (eg canola)
Sweet chilli sauce

Process the almonds in a food processor and remove. Roughly chop the chicken. Add all of the ingredients except the frying oil, sweet chilli sauce and wonton wrappers into a food processor. Blend them. Spoon 1 tsp onto each wonton wrapper, seal it up. Deep fry them in batches. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Fennel and Potato Curry with Beef and Coconut Prawns

A wonderful parent of some triplets I taught this year gave me some great food gear for Christmas. One of the things she gave me was some Afrika Kalahari Curry Powder. To add to that, my wife is away (boo) but that means I therefore am allowed to cook with fennel (hooray). I dig on curry but am far from an expert on cooking it but this did exceeded my expectations. Very little prep and a whole wad of flavour - I had thirds by the end of the night. I forgot to boil rice as I was cooking while on the phone but after I had eaten, I boiled some pearl barley and mixed it through the left overs and it was very gooooood. If you can't get this particular curry powder, make you own or buy something that looks fancy - Keens Curry Powder won't cut it.

4 heaped tsp Afrika Kalahari Curry Powder

300gms prawns shelled

1/2 cup corn flour

1 egg beaten

1 cup shredded coconut

1 small piece rump steak

Salt

Lemon wedges

2 medium potatoes peeled and diced

2 bulbs fennel in 16th wedges (stems and fronds reserved)

1 onion sliced
1 clove garlic sliced
1 or 2 cups chicken stock

Yoghurt

1 handful coriander chopped

Tomato or some kind of chutney

Boiled rice or pearl barley

Poppadoms

Mix 1 heaped tsp of the curry powder through the flour. Dust the prawns in the flour, shake off the excess, pass through the beaten egg and then coat with the shredded coconut, pressing it in. Cover with foil and place in the fridge until you are ready for it. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan that has a lid and toast 2 1/2 tsp of curry powder until fragrant. Toss the onion, potato and fennel through the flavoured oil. Pour in the coconut milk and chicken stock, add the lid and fennel stems and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potato is tender. Remove the fennel stems.

Heat  some olive oil to medium high. Sprinkle 1/2 a tsp of curry powder over the steak then fry in the oil on each side until medium rare. Remove to a clean plate, cover and keep warm to rest. Fry the coconut coated prawns in the same oil until there is nice colour on both sides (or deep fry for a more even result). Sprinkle the cooked prawn with salt and a squeeze of lemon. Thinly slice the steak and pour any resting juice into the curry. Stir through the chopped coriander and half of the fennel fronds.

Add enough rice to each bowl, top with some curry and sauce, add some steak to each bowl and some coconut prawns, garnish with some dill fronds, chutney, some fennel fronds, splotches of yoghurt and poppadoms.