Yellow Curry Mussels

My first order of business: I didn't make a "My Week That Was" post this week because, well, I was disorganised.  However, I will announce the winner of the truffled anchovies right here, right now. And the lucky person is Bel from "Ooh,Look!"  Bel suggested that I serve them with pasta, breadcrumbs and Parmesan, and because I love these ingredients (and because I received a pasta maker for Christmas), I just had to go with her suggestion.  So you will likely see a post next week where I have all sorts of wacky hijinks making homemade pasta for the first time.

Bel, please send me an email with your address and I will express post the anchovies to you this week - congratulations!

The second order of business:  I made some yellow curry paste.  Out of red, green or yellow curry - yellow wins, second is red.  I don't care much for green - but I'll eat it if it is served to me just in case you were wondering.

The reason why yellow is my favourite is the turmeric that is so prevalent in a yellow curry.  It is what gives the curry its colour and a warm, earthy flavour.  I used both fresh (which turned my fingers a delightful, artificial shade of buttercup - making it look as if I had been munching on cheese and bacon balls all day) and powdered turmeric (which might not be necessary, but I did it anyway), and the curry was all the yellower for it.

Third order of business: I used that curry paste to make a sauce for some mussels.  I am always into mussels.  They are the easiest and fastest seafood to prepare and yet they make me feel as if I am eating something very special - which to me, I am.  All you need to do is ditch any that have opened before cooking them and ditch any that have not opened after cooking.  This advice will ensure that you don't eat a bad one and will go on to have many years loving these little guys.  Oh!  If you get them home and they have fibrous, gnarly tendrils attached to the shell (called the beard) they should come off fairly easily, just twist them off and throw them away - you don't want to have that travelling down your throat.

Fourth item on the agenda is my new curry tree! Isn't he a beauty?  I think we are going to be very happy together.

I used two branches of leaves from him in this curry.  If you can get your hands on curry leaves, you will notice the difference that they make.  Of course, they are not always easy to find - so it is optional in the recipe.  I just really wanted you to meet him. 

I think I have covered everything on the agenda this week. And with no further business to discuss I call this meeting adjourned.  Next Actions are outlined below.

Yellow Curry Mussels
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1/2 cup of yellow curry paste - please see picture above for recipe
Approximately 20 fresh curry leaves - optional
270ml light coconut milk
white pepper and salt to taste
1 bunch of choy sum or any leafy Asian greens chopped to a manageable size

Heat the oil in a deep pot over a medium heat and and add the curry leaves. Mix and fry until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the yellow curry paste and cook until fragrant, about 7 minutes.
Add the coconut milk and bring to the boil for a couple of minutes. Season at will.
Add the choy sum and stir, about 2 minutes.
Add the mussels and place the lid on the pot. Shake the pot a little and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Check the mussels and if they are not all yet open give them another minute. 
Take the pot off the heat, discard any unopened mussels and serve with or without rice but with the greens and lots of sauce.

Two Things With Sour Cherries

These cherries come with a back-story and it all started (for me) with a post about a cake on JJ’s blog at 84^th and 3^rd - this post took my breath away.  

The cake in and of itself is the sort of cake you would make for guests coming over for afternoon tea.  However, then you would sneak sliver after sliver for yourself before your guests arrive only to be left, shamefully and apologetically, with only half a cake.  You wouldn't be able to serve this cake to your guests (for fear that your little secret might be revealed) so you end up serving them Tim Tams on a plate, with the other half of the cake safely squirreled away to be consumed Nigella style from the fridge as a midnight snack…

The key ingredient in this cake that made my eyes grow wide and my heart skip a beat were sour cherries - tiny, tart and almost cartoon-like in appearance.  The week before, I had been in Orange and had visited two separate farm gates in a vain attempt to find these cherries but had no luck. You see, I wanted to make homemade maraschino cherries.

My friend and I were talking about making homemade maraschinos before Christmas and we both set about making them with the large, black cherries so gloriously abundant around that time of the year – but you should really make them with their sour cousins.  The problem there is that they are so dang rare! The ones I made with the black cherries are good (great even) but they are not the same and I will probably end up eating them from the jar– solid-cocktail-meal-style.

JJ had managed to find her sour cherries via a tweet from Katie at The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co. They were selling sour Morelos at the Orange Grove Farmers Markets here in Sydney. 

I was too late to jump on this but upon closer inspection I found out that The Farm Gate is located literally down the road from where my parents live in Orange. By stroke of luck, they were selling some of their last morellos of the season at the Orange (not Orange Grove) Farmers Market that weekend. After careful orchestration and a timely visit to Sydney from my parents, I had 500 grams of morellos in my hot little hands! "Operation Sour Cherry" was a success thanks to JJ, Katie and my legend of a Mum who always brings the best produce to Sydney.

So I made my maraschinos and successfully removed the pips (using a paper-clip  while keeping the stems intact in half of my haul. However, one can tire from the delicate task of removing stones with a paper-clip  you get to a point where you just want to squeeze the life out of them and make some jam. 

I made the jam using jam setting sugar because there was no room for error. If I mess around with natural pectins in lemons or whatever, things could go awry and then where would I be?  Without my sour cherries, that’s where. 

No, there are times for short cuts and this is one of them. My handy-dandy sugar thermometer also made for a stress-free jamming situation.  The sour cherries were deserving of a fresh vanilla bean.

I slathered it on some pumpernickel with cream cheese for a snack: you must try this with any cherry jam you can get your hands on – it’s the business.

I can also imagine myself glazing a Christmas ham with it but I doubt that it will last that long.

Like I said, "Operation Sour Cherry" was a success. Nevertheless, I would not want to repeat that next season. Next season I will be armed and ready with paper-clip in hand.

Sour Cherry and Vanilla Bean Jam

Adapted from Delicious Days

500g Morello cherries (sour cherries)

500g Jam Setting Sugar

1 Vanilla Bean

Wash and pit your cherries and add them to a large, heavy based pot. Put a small plate in the freezer (we'll get to this later).

Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds with the back of a knife. Add the seeds to the pot along with the pod and the sugar.

Bring to the boil and boil for around 5 minutes

Take the plate out of the freezer and drop a small amount of jam onto the plate. Wait around 10 seconds and then gently run your finger through the jam (on the plate) - if it wrinkles then it is ready.

Another way to tell is to use a candy thermometer. Once the temperature reaches the "jam setting stage" it should be ready.

Carefully (CAREFULLY!) ladle the jam into sterilised jars, use a cloth to attach the lid and leave to cool. Label your jars and store in a cool, dark place.

Homemade Maraschino Cherries

Adapted from Katherine Martinelli
1 cup sour cherries, washed
1 cup cherry liqueur - Luxardo is recommended - 1:1
1/4 cup of sugar for every cup of liqueur and cherries

Pit the cherries by inserting a sterilised metal skewer (or paper clip, as I used) just beside the stem. Gently push the skewer through until you feel the stone. Keep gently pushing on the stone until it pops out the bottom. You should have the stem intact and little damage to the bottom of the cherry.
Trim the brown, nubbly ends off the stems and set aside.
Heat the liqueur and the sugar in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved. Do not bring to the boil.
Add the cherries and stir them around in the syrup for a couple of minutes.
Ladle the cherries into a jar and pour over the syrup and seal tightly. 
Leave to cool.
Store in the fridge 

My Week That Was: Week 3

This week I may have found my new favourite place to go in the Sydney CBD. It's called Le Pub and it serves up Parisian, bistro-style meals that are just gorgeous. I don't think I have a cross word to say about this place. I went there with my pal for lunch and we shared a couple of plates  - this confit of duck leg was my favourite and those dehydrated mandarin segments were perfect with the rich, silky duck. They have an impressive wine selection and I didn't feel guilty at all about drinking a glass of the Cruse Blanc de Blanc on a Monday at lunch...I'll be back.

Peach and Ginger Pie

I’m really proud of this pie.

It has been something I have wanted to make for a very long time and it really tested my skills in the pastry-making department.

Making pastry is not something I felt entirely comfortable with in the past; it stressed me out and generally made me feel unhappy. You see, I am the owner of consistently warm hands. If you want to hold hands with me on a chilly day, I am sure it would be fine (just, you know, ask me first) if you are so inclined. 

However if you want me to make pastry for you – well, things get a little more complicated. These hands melt butter quickly and because I don’t own a large enough food processor (just a hand held attachment) to be able to make it in there my only option is to make it by hand.

My friend (who can whip up flaky shortcrust pastry by hand in a matter of minutes) uses a pastry blender to cut the butter through the flour and thus never needing to touch it. I got myself one of those do-hickeys when I was in America last year and I think it may be one of the best kitchen tools I own right now - pastry making wise. 

I had a little help from Maggie Beer too. Her sour cream shortcrust recipe is awesome. Three ingredients: butter, flour and sour cream makes for extra flakiness. This is now my go-to shortcrust recipe. 

When I was in Orange a couple of weeks ago, I made a little pilgrimage to Hillside Orchard where my family buys their seasonal fruit. I love to buy apples there in autumn but this particular visit had me walking out with a bag of lovely, fragrant peaches and the promise of pie dancing around in my head.

There is rum* in there and for me it is there purely for the fragrance. Peaches and rum are one of those wonderful scents that just belong together - like vanilla and pear, or tomato and basil. Introducing ginger to the pair was an experiment that went very, very well.  It harmonises with the peaches and rum in the fragrance department and then provides background warmth behind the delicately sweet peaches.  My mouth is watering just writing about this combination. 

So what have I learnt?

I learnt that I am no longer afraid of pastry and I do not need a food processor to make said pastry. I have also learnt that there are many paths to happiness, and if you take peaches, ginger and rum with you for the ride, you are sure to have a wonderful journey.  

*I purposely left rum out of the title for this recipe because although it is recommended - it is, of course, optional.

Peach and Ginger Pie

pastry via Maggie Beer 

Influenced by Smitten Kitchen

I used a 25cm metal pie dish

For the Pastry:

I made my pastry using Maggie Beers sour cream shortcrust pastry recipe – but I don’t have a large enough food processor so I used a hand held pastry blender (like this) to incorporate the butter. I also divided the mixture into two discs before refrigerating.

For The Filling:

6 Large yellow peaches (Approximately 1kg)

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 “thumb sized” piece of fresh ginger, minced

Approx 2 tablespoons of dark rum – optional

1 tablespoon of corn flour

Method:

• Bring a large pot of water to the boil and have a bowl of icy water ready. Cut a small X in the base of each peach.
• Plunge the peaches into the boiling water for a about 30 seconds and then remove them with a slotted spoon and place them directly into the ice bath.
• The skin should have loosened enough for you to peel it off easily. 
• Slice the peaches down the middle and remove the stone, then slice into wedges.
• In a bowl, toss the peach slices with the ginger, sugar, corn flour and rum (if you are so inclined) and set aside for about an hour to marinate. The sugar and corn flour will create a sauce and the ginger and rum will become one with the peaches.
• On a clean, floured surface, roll your pastry out into a disc about 5 mm in thickness and about 30 cm in diameter. 
• Fold the disc into quarters and place it in your pie dish with the folded corner facing the centre. 
• Unfold the disc so that it fits within your pie dish and there is a few cm of overhang.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C (fan forced)
• Roll the other disc out to the same size and thickness as the base and slice into approximately 2.5 cm strips.
• Spoon your peach filling into the base. There will be quite a bit of sauce left, you do not need to use all of this.
• Place every second strip of pastry over the filling going in one direction and then place every other strip over that in the other direction.
• Here is a good guide to assist you with creating a lattice effect.
• Brush the top of the pastry with milk or a lightly beaten egg.
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until the top is golden and the filling is bubbling.

Serve hot or cold with vanilla ice cream, cream or on its own.

My Week That Was: Week 2

This week was not so jam-packed with activity, I started work again for the year and have just been going through the motions and trying to avoid the intense heatwave that Sydney experienced. I thought a lot about our fire fighters and what they would have to say about their week that was...

Green Bean and Preserved Lemon Salad

Whenever my Mum comes to Sydney, she is (more often than not) likely to bring some wonderful, fresh from the country, edible gifts with her for my brother and me. Mostly it is eggs (most welcome!) but before Christmas she came bearing gifts of gold: limoncello, so fragrant and luridly coloured that you would swear that it was artificial, and preserved lemons in all their salty goodness.  

Mostly (from what I can gather) preserved lemons are used in Moroccan tagines and the like. But that is not going to happen any time soon for me because it is currently 10 p.m. as I type this and the weather outside is a rather balmy 35*C - not the time for a tagine, no Sir. It's also not the time for sitting slumped over a warm laptop - so I am going to keep the writing part of this post brief before I melt onto the floor. 

In my world, right now, brevity is welcome when it comes to cooking. Besides, this dish has such bright, fresh flavours and colours, that you will want to make it and eat it, stat - regardless of the weather.

The beans are gently steamed until they are just underdone and then plunged into icy water to preserve their snappiness. The preserved lemon is scraped clean until just the sunny skins remain and finely diced. Visually, the lemon seems to be lost in the fray of oregano oil, goat's milk feta and toasted almonds - but they are there, little sparks that come and go as you pick over the beans.

Eat it on its own as a salad if you can't bear the heat of the stove or have it as a side dish with some steak or cold, leftover chicken as I did. This is also one of those salads that improves with a little time. I had some leftover for lunch today, when it was 42*C outside with a big old pile of watermelon as a chaser. 
Nothing further needed.

Green Bean and Preserved Lemon Salad
Please forgive the approximation of the ingredients, when I make this again I will update the recipe - rest assured, I will be making this again...

Approx 2 handfuls green beans, tops and tails chopped off.
1/4 preserved lemon skin, flesh and pith removed, finely diced.
Approx 1/3 cup flaked almonds, lightly toasted.
50g goat's milk feta, crumbled
Handful of fresh oregano leaves
Approx 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Steam the beans for 3 to 5 minutes or until the beans are just underdone.
Plunge the beans into icy water to cool, then strain and set aside.
Add the extra virgin olive oil and oregano leaves to a mortar and pestle and pound until the oregano has almost disappeared and the oil is lovely and green, you can also do this using a stick blender.
In a serving dish, place the beans, crumbled fetta, preserved lemon and most of the toasted almonds. Drizzle with most of the oregano oil and the lemon juice and toss to combine. Before serving, drizzle the rest of the oil and scatter the rest of the almonds over the salad. 
Great eaten then and there on its own or as a side, or is fantastic the next day.

My Week That Was: Week 1

Happy New Year!
In the end we had a very quiet night in. I made Smitten Kitchen's Vermontucky Lemonade (which I make often) and some spicy parmesan popcorn that was inspired by some popcorn that I spied here on Helen from Grab Your Fork's blog. We were able to see the top of the fireworks from up the street so we went out and saw the 9pm and the midnight sessions. It was a lovely, chilled out way to ring in the new year.