Tag: sauces and condiments

• 

  PK’s NoRecipe Southeast Asian Dipping Sauce

  This is my go to sauce if I need to quickly whip up a Southeast Asian style dipping sauce or salad dressing. I use it for rice paper rolls, spring rolls, beef salads, chicken salads and so much more.

  Adjust the balance of fish sauce to sugar as you see fit or to suit how you are using it. Put a squirt of Sriracha or sweet chili sauce in there for a bit of a zing :).

  Steps:

  Simply mix:

  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 Tbsp peanut oil
  • 1 tsp raw sugar
  • 1/4 cup lime (or lemon juice depending on purpose)
  • sriracha sauce, to taste and optional

  Give everything a good whisk to dissolve the sugar and you are done :).

  

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Related Links:

  • see more dips and sauces here
  • see more NoRecipe goodness here

   

   

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  August 27, 2017

• 

  DrippyStuff: PK’s Cheaters Diane Sauce

  My family sure does like its beef :).

  We are very lucky in Australia to have a great beef industry and also the climate to barbecue it year round. That mean lots of opportunity to experiment in the kitchen.

  Most days I look up recipes that make use of the plants I have in my kitchen garden and work backwards. So I am pleased to say that if like me you have never made Steak Diane before because it sounded complicated, we couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Notes:

  • adapted from http://www.cooks.com/recipe/qr0lk5fe/steak-diane.html
  • no mushrooms in this version but I might try using Enoki next time
  • I use porterhouse steaks a lot because it is very forgiving on the barbecue.

  You will be:

  1. Preparing the ingredients.
  2. Serving directly.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    •  2 small shallots, thinly sliced
    • 1 tsp chives, finely diced
    • 2 tsp parsley, finely diced
    • 2 Tbsp salted butter
    • 1/8 cup dry sherry
    • 1/4 tsp table salt
    • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
    • 1/2 tsp lemon juice
    • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
    • ground black peppercorns to taste
  •  Equipment:
    • a long sharp knife
    • a chopping board
    • a whisk
    • a small frypan

  Preparing the ingredients

  1. Slice the 2 small shallots.
  2. Finely dice the 2 tsp of parsley and 1 tsp of chives.
  3. Gently melt the 2 Tbsp of butter in the saucepan.
  4. Add the shallots, parsley and chives and gently stir until the shallots soften.
  5. Add and mix the:
     • 1/4 tsp table salt
     • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
     • 1/2 tsp lemon juice
     • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
     • ground black peppercorns to taste
  6. Stir in the 1/8 cup dry sherry.

  Serving directly

  Cook your steak anyway you like it while you keep the sauce warm (I put some foil on the saucepan after taking it off the heat).

  Drizzle, chomp and then sigh :).

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  April 27, 2017

• 

  DrippyStuff: Creamy Aioli

  Last night we had my Baked Mashed Potato, Bacon and Cheese Balls again and I wanted to have something to dip them in. I did a quick Google and settled on this recipe.

  The result was amazing and got ticks of approval from my wife who is something of an expert when it comes to this particular sauce.

  Notes:

  • I found the original recipe a bit runny so I reduced the amount of water
  • You will be whisking slowly for around 10 minutes in my experience
  • You can make it taste different every time by mixing up the seasoning
  • Contains raw egg

  You will be:

  1. Whisking and whisking some more.
  2. Seasoning the sauce.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 1 egg yolk
    • 1 tsp water
    • 1/4 tsp table salt
    • 1 garlic clove (very finely diced)
    • 1/2 cup olive oil
    • lemon juice to taste
    • ground sea salt or table salt to tast
    • ground black peppercorns to taste
  •  Equipment:
    • a long sharp knife
    • a chopping board
    • a whisk
    • a small metal mixing bowl

  Whisking and whisking some more

  1. Pop the egg yolk into the metal mixing bowl.
  2. Add the:
     • 1/4 tsp table salt.
     • 1 garlic clove (very finely diced).
     • 1 tsp water.
     • a tiny amount of the oil.
  3. Start whisking slowly and don’t stop as you very very very slowly add the rest of the 1/2 cup olive oil.
  4. Keep whisking until you get a smooth creamy consistency.

  Starting off:

  

  A bit of effort but oh so worth it:

  

  Seasoning the sauce

  I just used my salt and pepper grinders and a splash of lemon juice until I got the taste I liked. Remember that you will get less of a garlic wallop when combining it with food vs testing it by itself so don’t panic. Unless you love a lot of garlic power and in this case add more next time.

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  March 19, 2017

• 

  PK’s NoRecipe Sage and Thyme Butter

  A really simple sage, thyme and parmesan flavoured butter that goes well with anything, especially chicken and seafood. I suppose it would probably keep for a while in the fridge but I have only ever made enough to use straight away.

  Bring together your desired amount of butter or margarine or butter blend (perhaps 60 – 100g) and then add to taste:

  • sage
  • thyme
  • pepper
  • parmesan cheese (better yet Parmigiano-Reggiano)

  I bring the butter to room temperature, in Australia that will make it pretty soft and workable very quickly during summer.

  Finely chop the rest of the ingredients and fold them in.

  

  Once I folded it all in, gently, I went all Baskin-Robbins style on it by mixing it some more on a clean counter top.

  

  I then rolled it into a ball and chilled the whole lot again.

  

  My serving suggestion 🙂

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  November 13, 2016

• 

  PK’s You..Can’t..Handle..The..Guac

  I like anything with avocado in it so it is no surprise that I love my home made ‘guac’. If only because I use as much stuff from my kitchen garden as possible. I love anything that works well with ‘make your own combination’ meals like taco or nacho night.

  Every avocado lover probably has their own guacamole recipe (the first being invented by the Aztecs) and here is mine. In any other dish I tend to keep the spice factor low so that people can add their own heat factor during eating. Not this time family :).

  No spice and onion = no guac.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients (serves about 3 – 4 people):
    • chives to taste
    • 1 red shallot or half a brown onion
    • 1 jalapeno chili or 1 cayenne chili
    • a few drops of Tabasco pepper sauce (or your home made version)
    • a handful of coriander leaves and stems
    • 1 avocado
    • 3 cherry tomatoes or equivalent amount of your favourite type
    • the juice of half a lemon or lime (to bring the avocado alive)
    • cracked black peppercorns (to taste)
    • table salt (an optional extra to taste but I don’t use any)
  • Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a sharp knife
    • a wet mixer
    • a serving bowl

  Make the paste

  

  Steps:

  1. Chuck into the wet mixer:
     • the chives (amount optional)
     • 1 red shallot (skin removed)
     • 1 jalapeno chili or 1 cayenne (de-seeded if you prefer)
     • a handful of coriander leaves and stems
     • a few drops of Tabasco pepper sauce
     • 1 avocado (skin and seed removed)
     • 3 cherry tomatoes
     • the juice of half a lemon
     • cracked black pepper to taste
  2. Pulse the ingredients in the wet mixer until you get your desired texture and consistency.
  3. Pulse it a bit more because your toddler got upset he didn’t have a turn :).

  

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  July 16, 2016

• 

  PK’s Thai Beef Salad

  I love south east asian salads. They are a feast for your eyes and your taste buds. The range of flavours is diverse and so hard to get right sometimes. The pay off is worth it though and this particular dish is no exception. It is now a family favourite and lends itself well to any communal meal.

  I have shown my timing preferences below for serving the salad with warm beef slices. Of course, if you prefer cold meat in this dish, you can make them in any order and well ahead of time. Oh and don’t forget to bring your steaks out of the fridge a little earlier so they are approaching room temperature as they go in the frypan.

  STEPS:

  1. Make the Nam jim dressing
  2. Roast the rice
  3. Gather the salad ingredients
  4. Cook the beef steaks
  5. Serving Suggestions

  You will need:

  • Nam jim Ingredients (repeated here for your shopping list):
    • 1 tsp powdered kashmiri chilli
    • 5 coriander roots (cilantro)
    • 3 garlic cloves
    • 2.5cm piece fresh ginger root
    • 3 Tbsp fish sauce
    • 3 Tbsp lime juice
    • 1 Tbsp palm sugar
  • Roasted Rice Ingredients
    • 100g of basmati or jasmine rice
    • 1 Tbsp of rock sea salt
  • Salad Ingredients
    • several large cabbage leaves (1 per person)
    • 2 cups baby spinach leaves
    • 1 handful of coriander leaves and stems
    • 1/2 large red capsicum
    • 1/3 of a burpless cucumber
    • 1 red shallot
    • 1 spring onion
    • 6 cherry tomatoes
    • 1 cup bean sprouts
    • 1 handful of mint leaves
    • 1 medium carrot
    • 1 handful of snow peas
    • your favourite fresh chilis (optional)
    • unsalted peanuts to taste (optional)
  • Steak Ingredients
    • small eye fillet steaks (1 per person)
    • ground black pepper to taste
    • table salt to taste
    • kecap manis or soy sauce (optional)
  • Equipment
    • an oven tray
    • a mortar and pestle
    • a chopping board
    • a small serving bowl for the roasted rice
    • a large salad bowl
    • a large frypan

   Make the Nam jim dressing

  

  Steps:

  1. Make the Nam Jim dressing as per PK’s Favourite Nam Jim Dressing.

  Roast the rice

  Steps:

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 200° C.
  2. Spread the rice grains across an oven tray and cook for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
  3. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool.
  4. Grind 1 Tbsp of rock sea salt in a mortar and pestle.
  5. Add the cooled roasted rice grains to the mortar and pestle and grind to your desired consistency. I personally like the result to be variably granulated and not fully powdered.
  6. Add to a small serving bowl.

   

   

  Gather the salad ingredients

   

  Steps:

  1. Wash and dry all of the vegetables.
  2. Put the cabbage leaves aside as you won’t need them until serving time.
  3. Keep the 1 cup of bean sprouts aside for the same reason
  4. Slice and then
  5. To a large salad bowl add:
     • 2 cups baby spinach leaves
     • 1 handful of hand torn coriander leaves and stems
     • 1/2 red capsicum fine sliced (deseeded and pith removed)
     • 1/3 of a burpless cucumber sliced and quartered
     • 1 shallot fine sliced
     • 1 spring onion fine sliced
     • 6 halved cherry tomatoes
     • 1 handful of hand torn mint leaves
     • 1 medium carrot fine sliced  (I use a potato peeler to make thin strips)
     • 1 handful of hand torn snow peas (chop the ends off each first.

  Cook the beef steaks

  

  Steps:

  1. Preheat your frypan and add a splash of olive oil. You could barbecue them outside of course but I prefer a frypan when cooking eye fillet steaks.
  2. Cook the eye fillet steaks to  medium rare and allow them to rest, optionally adding a bit of kecap manis or soy sauce at this point.
  3. Thinly slice the cooked steaks.

  Serving Suggestions

  Steps:

  1. Place a whole cabbage leaf on each plate.
     • Fill to the brim with the salad ingredients.
     • Add the beef slices.
     • Throw some bean sprouts over the top.
  2. Serve to the table and let each person add as much or as little  of the roasted rice and Nam jim dressing as they like.
  3. Have sliced fresh chillis and unsalted peanuts on the table for just the same reason.

   

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  June 18, 2016

• 

  PK’s Favourite Nam Jim Dressing

  Wikipedia writes ‘Nam jim (น้ำจิ้ม) is Thai for “dipping sauce”. It can refer to a wide variety of dipping sauces in Thai cuisine, with many of them being a combination of salty, sweet, spicy and sour’.

  I use this dressing in my PK’s Thai Beef Salad.

  I use a blender (don’t tell anyone please) instead of a mortar and pestle because I am lazy. You will get a more visually appealing result if you use the former, though I hope the taste is similar. I primarily use this dressing on my Thai Beef Salads and they have a lot going on visually anyway.

  Edit: Last time I made this dressing I used a mortar and pestle and the results were worth it 🙂

  If you haven’t already, please go and have a read of my post PK’s Curry Paste Kit. It will show you just how off the charts bonkers I am about using whole spices and the freshest ingredients when making your own pastes etc. Actually maybe give that post a miss ;).

  STEPS:

  1. Gather the ingredients
  2. Mix in the wet blender
  3. Serving

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 1 tsp powdered kashmiri chili
    • 5 coriander roots (cilantro)
    • 3 garlic cloves
    • 2.5cm piece fresh ginger root
    • 3 Tbsp fish sauce
    • 3 Tbsp lime juice
    • 1 Tbsp palm sugar
  • Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a long sharp knife
    • a tablespoon
    • a teaspoon
    • a medium sized bowl
    • a wet blender with a small bowl
    • a dry mill (optional)
    • a small serving bowl for the middle of the table

  Gather the ingredients

  Steps:

  1. Dry mill your whole kashmiri chilis to get 1 tsb. Mostly I use store bought powder though.
  2. Wash the 5 coriander roots thoroughly if you have just harvested them. I have a stash in the freezer though of roots retained after using the rest of the plant. See my post Herbs – Coriander (Coriandrum sativum).
  3. Peel and rough chop the 3 garlic cloves.
  4. Peel and rough chop the 2.5cm ginger root.
  5. Bring the 3 Tbsp fish sauce, 3 Tbsp lime juice and 1 Tbsp palm sugar together.

  

  Mix in the wet blender

  Steps:

  1. Pop everything into your wet blender and pulse till you get the look you are after.
  2. Have a taste and add a bit more of anything you think is under represented. For example I normally add a bit more fish sauce for the saltiness factor.

  

  Serving

  Pop the lot in a serving bowl. I do this so that every one can build their own Thai salad at dinner. I haven’t tried storing this in the fridge for very long but the salt content of the fish sauce should let it keep for a while. You might just want to freshen up the citrus flavour by adding a bit of lime or lemon juice.

  I would love to hear about your favourite Thai salad dressing or dipping sauce.

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  June 12, 2016

• 

  PK’s Coriander And Garlic Sauce

  I first had this sauce (store bought) when I was in Darwin 2016.

  It is simple to make but it packs a real astringent wallop. I used this recipe originally from http://www.tarladalal.com/ (this site is amazing FYI)  and I am going to experiment a bit with the amount of garlic and sugar . I also blended it the first time and I think that made it too potent :).

  It goes great drizzled on a green or your Asian salad of choice. You can even use it as a dipping sauce for spring rolls and the like.

  You will need:

  • Ingredients:
    • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • 1 Tbsp coriander leaves (cilantro)
    • 1 Tbsp fresh green chilis
    • 0.5 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
    • 2 tsp white vinegar
    • 2 Tbsp water

  • Equipment
    • a chopping board
    • a long sharp knife
    • a medium sized bowl
    • a serving bowl
    • optional: a wet blender with a very small bowl

  Make the sauce

  

  Steps:

  1. Rough chop the 1 Tbsp worth of coriander leaves and add them to a bowl.
  2. Peel and finely chop the 2 garlic cloves. I use the knife to gently smash the garlic clove first to make it easier to peel. Chuck this in the bowl.
  3. Finely chop the 1 Tbsp worth of green chilis and (you guessed it) add it to the bowl.
  4. Squeeze about 0.5 Tbsp of lemon juice and add this to the bowl along with:
     • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
     • 2 tsp white vinegar
     • 2 Tbsp water
  5. Now you can either mix the sauce with a fork or optionally blend it in the wet mixer for a few pulses.

  

  Enjoy,

  PK

  Written by

  PK

  ·

  May 8, 2016