Tag: garlic
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Karina’s ‘Quick Pickle’ Onion And Tomato Salad
My little family does a tasting plate meal night every week, they are so easy and quick to whip up. What is on offer varies but often involves cold meats, multiple salads, pate, cheese etc. I love watching my kids ‘build’ their own meal and there is lots of laughter round the table.
I was telling my telling my good friend Karina about this recently and this was one of her suggestions for something new.
You simply:
- soak onion rings in vinegar (I used white wine vinegar) for about 15 minutes.
- drain them.
- top with sliced tomatoes, salt, garlic, pepper and olive oil.
The result is amazing and I am never buying store bought pickled onions again 🙂
Thanks Karina,
PK
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DrippyStuff: Chicken Baste #1
This is the second in my posts on dry rubs and basting sauces for use when roasting meat, it works great regardless of whether you are using a BBQ or an oven. I used it recently on an oven roast chicken along with this dry rub as inspired by http://noblepig.com/.
Again, I take my hat off to the people over at Noble Pig and our own Growchow, you are indeed doing amazing work :).
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- 1/2 tsp ground rock salt
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (this stuff is amazing)
- 1 Tbsp garlic infused olive oil
- 1/4 tsp tumeric powder
- 1/4 tsp beetroot powder (for colour, I make my own here)
- 2 drops of liquid smoke (mostly because a second drop fell in accidently, yum)
- Equipment:
- a small bowl for the sauce
- a fork for mixing
- a basting brush
Steps:
- Bring all the ingredients together.
- Get distracted by how amazing it looks and smells.
- Mix everything together.
- Baste your chicken.
Enjoy,
PK
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- Ingredients:
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PK’s Chicken Baste #1
This is the second in my posts on dry rubs and basting sauces for use when roasting meat, it works great regardless of whether you are using a BBQ or an oven. I used it recently on an oven roast chicken along with this dry rub as inspired by http://noblepig.com/.
Again, I take my hat off to the people over at Noble Pig and our own Growchow, you are indeed doing amazing work :).
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- 1/2 tsp ground rock salt
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (this stuff is amazing)
- 1 Tbsp garlic infused olive oil
- 1/4 tsp tumeric powder
- 1/4 tsp beetroot powder (for colour, I make my own here)
- 2 drops of liquid smoke (mostly because a second drop fell in accidently, yum)
- Equipment:
- a small bowl for the sauce
- a fork for mixing
- a basting brush
Steps:
- Bring all the ingredients together.
- Get distracted by how amazing it looks and smells.
- Mix everything together.
- Baste your chicken.
Enjoy,
PK
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- Ingredients:
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Moosey’s Sunny Tommies
Ben’s better half is a gardener and cook in her own right. This is her first post on the blog. Thanks and welcome to Moosey.
She writes:
Ever have the problem of too many tomatoes? Sick of Bruschetta but don’t want to let your hard grown fruit go to waste? “sun drying” tomatoes is a great way of storing excess fruit for a later date.
Steps:
Firstly, collect as many tomatoes as possible. We don’t let any, including fallen ones, go to waste. Of course, any with rot, disease or pest should go into the compost. For this recipe, the riper the tomatoes the better.
Wash tomatoes in a light vinegar solution to get rid of any nasties, and then let them dry. Larger tomatoes are sliced or halved, and smaller and cherry tomatoes just slit to allow the juice to escape. You may also wish to core larger tomatoes.
Gently squeeze the majority of the juice and seeds out. This is to help the drying process, and will speed it up. Once done, lay your tomatoes out in your dehydrator, sprinkle with salt and turn leave until they are nice and dry. Ours took ~36 hours because there was quite a few (and we forgot about them). Dried tomatoes will be reduced in size, shrivelled and leathery, but not tacky
Sterilise a jar (or jars) by boiling in water, and once dry fill tightly with your tomatoes. Now, add some flavour. I suggest garlic, thyme, oregano (all home grown of course) but really it’s up to you. Cover with a good olive oil, and pop into the fridge. Leave for a while, and enjoy on your next home made pizza, or as a snack during the day.
Kate Moosey
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PK’s Easy Thai Fish Cakes
Fish cakes taste great and are an amazing way of making a little bit of fish go further. They were a staple growing up and one of the dishes, my mum cooked us, that will always stay with me :).
I never use a recipe and no two batches come out the same but that is half the fun.
Below I am doing a take on Thai fish cakes but I am just as likely to make them coated in breadcrumbs. Sometimes I keep the potatoes chunky, sometimes I mash everything well to give a smoother texture.
I just follow two basic rules in that I use a 1:1 ratio of fish to parboiled potatoes and I like to add colour by using finely minced fresh vegetables in the mix itself. If you find the cakes fall apart during cooking, try a bit more egg in the mix next time.
Parboil the potatoes:
Mash your fish (I am using canned John West Pink Salmon):
Prepare the vegetables (I am going for a Thai taste so I am using lime zest, shallots, coriander, garlic and some red capsicum for colour):
Whisk an egg or two and mix everything up (I did this gently as I wanted a chunky look):
Make small or large cakes, using your hands, as you please and then pop them in the fridge for a bit (just look at the colours, beautiful):
A quick shallow fry is all that is needed:
Serve with some greens and you favourite sides:
Enjoy,
PK
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PK’s NoRecipe Thai Fish Cakes
Fish cakes taste great and are an amazing way of making a little bit of fish go further. They were a staple growing up and one of the dishes my mum cooked us that will always stay with me :).
I never use a recipe and no two batches come out the same and that is half the fun. Below I am doing a take on Thai fish cakes but I am just as likely to make them coated in breadcrumbs. Sometimes I keep the potatoes chunky, sometimes I mash everything well to give a smoother texture.
I just follow two basic rules in that I use a 1:1 ratio of fish to parboiled potatoes and I like to add colour by using finely minced fresh vegetables in the mix itself. If you find the cakes fall apart during cooking, try a bit more egg in the mix next time.
Parboil the potatoes:
Mash your fish (I am using canned John West Pink Salmon):
Prepare the vegetables (I am going for a Thai taste so I am using lime zest, shallots, coriander, garlic and some red capsicum for colour):
Whisk an egg or two and mix everything up (I did this gently as I wanted a chunky look):
Make small or large cakes, using your hands, as you please and then pop them in the fridge for a bit (just look at the colours, beautiful):
A quick shallow fry is all that is needed:
Serve with some greens and you favourite sides:
Enjoy,
PK
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Welchy’s Wonton Noodle Soup
And so I’m back
From out of space
I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face …the sad face I am referring to is that of my older brother’s. I have been a bit busy and whilst I have been taking lots of photos – I then never got around to writing the actual blog. So here goes…
My boyfriend loves Wonton Noodle Soup and will only eat it from one place (International Food Court in Morley if you ever get a chance). It’s divine – with slivers of pork, crunchy bok choy for texture, a gorgeous broth and then these silky full of flavour wontons… it’s basically Heaven in a bowl. And to top it all off they scatter crumbled pork crackling over the top.
I finally convinced him to let me have a go at cooking my own and suffice to say the results were amazing. Like most men (my younger and ‘opinionated about food even though he never cooks’ brother is one) if he goes for a second helping then you know you are onto a winner. It’s a little fiddly so unless you make it on a weekend, try and make the wontons ahead of time as they can sit in the fridge until you are ready 🙂
Ingredients:
For the Soup- 2½ cup chicken stock
- 2½ cup water
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 3 garlic cloves, smashed
- 3 to 4⅛-inch thin fresh ginger root slices (approximately 1 oz.)
- 2 green onions, cut in halves
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Wonton Filling- 4 oz. ground pork
- 1 tsp. soy sauce
- 1 tsp. Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine, you can substitute with dry sherry)
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
- ¼ tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp. sesame oil
- ¼ tsp. ground fresh ginger root
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1 green onion, finely chopped
- small pinch of black or white pepper
- 20 square wonton wrappers
For the Garnish- chopped green onion
- Cilantro leaves
Method
1. In a medium/large pot, add all ingredients for the soup. Cover, bring it to boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let all the flavor come together. Meanwhile, let’s make wontons!
2. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for the wonton filling and mix well with a spoon until cornstarch incorporated with other wet ingredients.
3. Take a wonton wrapper on your left hand(if you are right handed) and paint edges of square lightly with cold water using your finger tip. Put ½ teaspoon of filling in centre of wrapper. Fold in half, triangle shape and seal it tightly by pinching edges together with your fingers. Paint one of lower side corners of triangle with water and bring right and left corner together (water painted side down) and press well to make traditional curved wonton shape. Place wontons 1 to ½-inch apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Repeat until you finish with wonton filling and wrappers.
4. When your wontons are ready, discard solid ingredients from soup base and bring it to boil.
5. Carefully add wontons and cook for 10 to 15 minutes. wontons will be fully cooked in 3 minutes, but cook it longer so all flavour from wontons will melt in to soup. Taste and add salt and pepper to your taste at this point.
6. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with green onion, cilantro and pepper to your taste.
And then…being super sneaky…I fried a couple of the wontons while the wontons were cooking in the soup. So totally worth it! Would be amazing on a cold night, but no matter the weather I’d eat this haha.
Katie
Related Links:
- see more Welchy posts here
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PK Makes Ching He Huang’s Beef in Oyster Sauce
My hat off to the BBC chef Ching He Huang and her simple but flavoursome Beef in Oyster Sauce recipe.
This dish caught my eye because it calls for tenderising, with a mallet or rolling pin, beef eye fillet (tenderlion) steaks. I can see you shaking your head but trust me it is a transformational part of the recipe. The meat literally melts in your mouth!
Ching’s “… approach is to demystify the notion that Chinese cooking is complicated and time consuming by demonstrating traditional recipes that can be easily adapted for the home cook…”.
Mission accomplished!
You will be
- Bashing and flash seasoning the beef.
- Stir frying the vegetables
- Stir frying the beef
- Serving
You will need
- Ingredients (as the only main it served 2 adults and a hungry toddler very well):
- 350g beef eye fillet steaks
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns
- 2 slugs of peanut oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 300g baby spinach leaves
- 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks
- a handful of snow peas, sliced or whole
- 1 Tbsp dry Sherry
- 1 cup of your favourite rice (mine is basmati)
- Equipment
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- several sheets of baking paper
- a bowl for marinading the meat
- a tenderising mallet or a rolling pin
- a wok or deep fry pan
- a serving dish
Steps:
Bashing and flash seasoning the beef
- Place the eye fillet steaks in between two sheets of baking paper and bash the stuffing out of it with a rolling pin or tenderising mallet. I know right :).
- Thinly slice the bashed beef and place into a bowl.
- Season with the:
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and black peppercorns to taste.
Stir frying your vegetables
- Chop and slice all of the vegetables.
- Add a slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot.
- Add the 3 cloves garlic (finely diced) and chopped chili to taste if you like it hot.
- Add the 1 carrot (sliced into sticks).
- Add the handful of snow peas.
- Keep everything moving all the time and then when you think it is time chuck in the 300g baby spinach leaves.
- As soon as the spinach leaves wilt and become warm put the whole lot into a serving dish. I sometimes cover them to keep everything piping hot.
Stir frying the beef
- Add another slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot again.
- Add the now seasoned beef slices and stir fry for a few minutes at most, remember that they will continue to cook after you take them out of the pan. We don’t want them to be chewy.
- Pour the 1 Tbsp dry Sherry over the meat and quickly toss everything.
- Add the now cooked beef to the cooked vegetables waiting in the serving dish.
Serving
Serve from a central dish and let everyone take what they need. Make sure there is plenty of rice and good conversation. 🙂
Thanks again to Ching,
PK
Here are some more Chinese and asian fusion posts:
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PK Makes Beef in Oyster Sauce
This was simply the best stir fry I have ever cooked. I literally sighed when I first tasted it and you couldn’t wipe the smile of my face.
I knew it was good because everyone came back for seconds, even my toddler :).
This dish caught my eye because it calls for tenderising, with a mallet or rolling pin, beef eye fillet (tenderlion) steaks. I can see you shaking your head but trust me it is a transformational part of the recipe. The meat literally melts in your mouth!
My hat off to the BBC chef Ching He Huang and her simple but flavoursome recipe. I modified it slightly by leaving out the chili (at my family’s request), adding a lot more vegetable variety and served it with basmati rice rather than sautéed mushrooms.
Ching’s “… approach is to demystify the notion that Chinese cooking is complicated and time consuming by demonstrating traditional recipes that can be easily adapted for the home cook…”.
Mission accomplished mate!
As per my normal practice, I marinaded the beef first thing in the day. In this case I did it to make it easier, having everything ready to go, when I cooked the meal in the evening. That said, this dish will blow you away even if you just flash marinade the meat for a few minutes.
You will be:
- Bashing and flash seasoning the beef.
- Prepping, quickly stir frying the vegetables and putting them aside.
- Quickly stir frying the beef and combing everything as you serve.
You will need:
- Ingredients (as the only main it served 2 adults and a hungry toddler very well):
- 350g beef eye fillet steaks
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns to taste
- 2 slugs of peanut oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 300g baby spinach leaves
- 1 carrot, chopped into matchsticks
- a handful of snow peas, sliced or whole
- 1 Tbsp dry Sherry
- 1 cup of your favourite rice (mine is basmati)
- Equipment
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- several sheets of baking paper
- a bowl for marinading the meat
- a tenderising mallet or a rolling pin
- a wok or deep fry pan
- a serving dish
Steps:
Prepare the beef
- Place the eye fillet steaks in between two sheets of baking paper and bash the stuffing out of it with a rolling pin or tenderising mallet. I know right :).
- Very thinly slice the bashed beef and place into a bowl.
- Season with the:
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1.5 Tbsp oyster sauce
- a pinch of raw sugar
- ground rock salt and black peppercorns to taste.
Prep and stir fry your vegetables
- Add a slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot.
- Chop and slice all of the vegetables.
- Add the 3 cloves garlic (finely diced) and chopped chili to taste if you like it hot.
- Add the 1 carrot (sliced into sticks).
- Add the handful of snow peas.
- Keep everything moving all the time and then when you think it is time chuck in the 300g baby spinach leaves.
- As soon as the spinach leaves wilt and become warm put the whole lot into a serving dish. I sometimes cover them to keep everything piping hot.
Stir fry the beef:
- Add another slug of peanut oil to the frypan and get it nice and hot again.
- Add the now seasoned beef slices and stir fry for a few minutes at most, remember that they will continue to cook after you take them out of the pan. We don’t want them to be chewy.
- Pour the 1 Tbsp dry Sherry over the meat and quickly toss everything.
- Add the now cooked beef to the cooked vegetables waiting in the serving dish.
Serving:
Serve immediately :).
Thanks again to Ching,
PK
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PK’s Savoury Mince And Potatoes
A favourite since childhood, this is simple food that couldn’t be easier to cook. By now you probably know that I think ‘peasant’ food is best.
It freezes very well and what’s more, you can eat it by itself or stretch it out using rice, bread, noodles or other starchy sides. One of my favourites is savoury mince and cheddar in a toasted sandwich.
I think this recipe has a couple of standard ingredients and then add whatever you like extra. Have fun and experiment :).
What are the essentials?
- beef mince
- potatoes
- carrot
- onion
- garlic
- chicken or beef stock (try Italian Beef Stock: Brodo Di Manzo)
- herbs like oregano, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves
- tomatoes or tomato paste
- pepper and salt to taste.
I also add red wine (boil it off of course) and anything else I have in my pantry or fridge that needs using.
Par-boil your potatoes:
Prepare your vegetables:
Sauté the onion in some olive oil:
Add the mince (browning it), herbs and stock (if using red wine bring to the boil) and then simmer until it is all reduced down to your liking:
This is the consistency I aim for:
Oh so tasty tonight and for tomorrow’s lunch:
I hope you like it,
PK
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