Epicure Recipe Card #24: Banana Pancakes with Golden Syrup

You may be forgiven for thinking that these Epicure recipe cards contain only fast midweek meal ideas. It’s an easy assumption to make going on my past posts but – guess what? - there are sweet ideas in there. For the first one I have gone with the very safe option of banana pancakes. The husband loves bananas in desserts so there’s no going wrong here. The unusual thing about these pancakes is that they actually contain sliced banana hidden in the batter. Paired with a grilled banana on top (excuse my horrible grey-ish looking one in the photo below – either I left it in the pan too long or the banana was a bit too ripe to start with), there is plenty of banana-ness in, atop and around the pancakes to satisfy even the most die-hard banana fan.

I used walnuts instead of macadamias as that’s what I had in the freezer (apparently the oils contained in nuts keeps better there) but I would imagine macadamias would be lovely with their buttery taste and texture. Someone make it with these and let me know please?

Banana Pancakes with Maple Syrup (makes 3 medium pancakes)

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         ½ cup plain flour

·         ½ tsp baking powder

·         tiny pinch of salt

·         1 egg, separated

·         ½ tbs caster sugar

·         125mL milk

·         ½ tsp vegetable oil

·         1 banana, peeled & sliced

·         oil and butter for cooking

·         50g macadamia nuts or walnuts, toasted

·         grilled banana, maple/golden syrup and ice-cream, to serve (optional)

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre.
2. In another bowl, whisk egg yolk, sugar, milk and oil together. Pour into the dry ingredients in the first bowl and whisk until smooth but avoid over-mixing. Rest in fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Stir sliced banana into the batter. Beat eggwhite until soft peaks form and gently fold into the batter.
4. Heat a small amount of oil and an equal amount of butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat until the butter starts to froth. Add a third of the batter to the pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface before flipping to cook on the other side. Cook the remaining batter in 2 batches, adding more oil and butter to the pan if required.
5. Serve pancakes topped with grilled banana, ice cream, nuts and maple/golden syrup if desired. 

happy cooking!

New Shanghai Chatswood (新上海) (again!), 31 Dec 2009

After a particularly late but enjoyable night catching up with a childhood friend visiting from London, which culminated in us getting home not long after sunrise, Monsieur Poisson and I understandably did not awake until the early afternoon. Lunch ended up being at around 3pm that day and instead of the usual oily, fried breakfasts in which I usually seek comfort after a big night out, our appetites were drawn towards the soul-restoring comforts of dumplings.

As we were not feeling very energetic, we only got as far as New Shanghai Chatswood and not the newer one at Chatswood Chase. We start off with the requisite Shanghainese soup dumplings, ‘xiao long bao’ (小籠包) which we happily slurp up easily as they require little chewing.

This is followed by Shanghainese stir-fried noodles (上海粗炒麵) which appears as a larger than expected serve. A mound of thick noodles flavoured with soy sauce are intertwined with strips of pork and ‘choy sum’ (菜心).

Strangely the dish that we order first is the last to be served. The savoury ‘Shallot Pancake’ (蔥油餅) makes for a great flaky, pastry snack and also satisfies our need for something a little oily. So I may not be indulging in a fried breakfast but I never said I was foregoing oiliness altogether!

New Shanghai Chatswood (新上海)

Shop 20, Lemon Grove Shopping Centre, 427-441 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW

Tel: (02) 9415 3536

Opening Hours:  Mon-Wed  10am-8pm

                        Thurs-Sun  10am-8:30pm

happy eating!

Coco Chocolate, 30 Dec 2009

After enjoying a quick brunch at Ripples Milsons Point we still had some time up our sleeves so we went for a bit of a wander around Kirribilli to look for somewhere to continue our catch-up conversation. By accident we stumble upon a romantically-decorated place called Coco Chocolate and, when there’s chocolate involved, the girls and I find it hard to refuse.

The small store is inviting, homely and decorated in suitably dark chocolate brown furniture. A contrasting cream-coloured, retro-styled Smeg fridge sits in the corner. There is a rectangular communal table in the centre as Coco Chocolate not only sells chocolates but also serves chocolate drinks, cakes and biscuits. At the back of the store a display cabinet holds blocks and blocks of differing varieties and sits adjacent to a shallow tub with magazines for patrons with time to spare and sit.

The store really is an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, possibly made more apparent with its serene coolness on this hot, humid and sunny afternoon. After circling the inside of the store like vultures a few times over, we decide to take a seat and treat ourselves to some sweet things.

There is a white, woven wicker tea tray sitting in the middle of the communal table holding a bottle of water spiked with refreshing mint leaves and some glasses. I am completely taken by the glasses with their frosted bird and tree patterns but unfortunately an enquiry with the store assistant doesn’t yield any answers as to their origins. Wifey enjoys an iced chocolate but unfortunately it’s not as chocolately as we’re expecting.

Now for the sweets! Of course we cannot order two of the same thing so Mistress goes for the pistachio shortbread which is short, crumbly, full of almonds as well as pistachios, and is coated by a layer of dark chocolate on the back. I’ve ordered the triple choc fudge cookie which I suspect is a Byron Bay Cookie by appearance but unfortunately it’s a bit dry. The choc chunk cookie which is also possibly from Byron Bay is much nicer but we all agree that the pistachio shortbread is the hands-down winner of the three.

A couple of months after visiting Coco Chocolate I happened to be reading Vogue entertaining + travel Australia, which had the following to say about the store: “One look at her pretty packaging and a bite of her organic chocolate and you'll be straight across the bridge to Coco Chocolate in Kirribilli. After 10 years of sweet success in the UK, chocolatier Rebecca Knights-Kerswell returns to tempt us with her range.” (Vogue entertaining + travel Australia, December/January 2010, p.20). I didn’t come away with any chocolate that day as I wasn’t heading straight home afterwards and was worried about issues of melting. I did however treat myself to these sugared violet petals which are due to become the decoration for some cute little cakes.

Coco Chocolate

Shop 12, 3a-9b Broughton St (near cnr Bligh St), Kirribilli NSW

Tel: (02) 9922 4998

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  10am-6pm

                        Sun  10am-2pm

happy eating!

Ripples Milsons Point, 30 Dec 2009

It can be difficult getting together with the people that matter to you these days. Coffee dates with a friend can be easy to arrange but when more people are thrown into the mix then there are just too many scheduling factors to contend with. Add to that the busy period of the year known as Christmas/New Year and you will end up with a lot of phone calls, SMS messages and emails flying every way possible and not a single confirmed date or time where everyone can attend.

This is how Wifey, Mistress and I ended up lunching at Ripples at Milsons Point together. Batman was unable to join us as she wasn’t feeling well and it was a bit of a strange overcast day to say the least. It did fine up later on to a baking, humid sort of heat replete with glary sunshine but none of this was to dampen our spirits as it had been too long between gatherings.

We arrive at around 10:30am and join the queue of patrons waiting for tables as we’ve been told no reservations are taken for their breakfast session. However we’re soon offered a seat along the stone edging and are protected from any glare by the plastic shade sheets. I order a skim flat white as per usual and although it tastes fine, the milk foam on top is artless which is most unusual in Sydney these days. Mistress goes for a sweet breakfast option of ‘Apple hotcakes with rhubarb compote and cinnamon crème fraîche’. The hotcakes are light and fluffy and the cinnamon crème fraîche is a most fragrant addition.

Wifey and I pretty much order the same thing with she having the ‘Salmon Benedict’ and I the ‘Eggs Benedict’. The only difference between the two is that hers comes with smoked salmon and mine comes with the traditional ham. Each of these breakfasts features beautifully poached eggs and lusciously thick Hollandaise on toasted English muffins. Wifey and Mistress both comment that they detect a watery taste about the eggs whereas I don’t, even after taste-testing both plates.

Attracting the waitstaff’s attention for service was a little difficult but once orders were taken the kitchen was efficient with the food. Presumably waitstaff were a bit distracted as there appeared to be a lunch function for which they were preparing, and we overheard a manager-type person turning people away for lunch service a little later on.

Ripples Milsons Point

Olympic Drive (cnr Alfred St South), Milsons Point NSW

Tel: (02) 9929 7722

Opening Hours:  Mon-Fri  8am-11am (breakfast)

                                    12pm-3pm (lunch)

                                    6pm-9:30pm (dinner)

                        Sat & Sun  7:30am-11am (breakfast)

                                        12pm-4pm (lunch)

                                        6pm-9:30pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #28: Risotto all’Arrabbiata

I had good intentions of following this recipe card to the letter in order to have a resulting dish that resembled the intended, instead of the multitude of variations that I seem to keep putting all the other recipe cards through. However, this was not to be as I scanned through the list of ingredients and came across pancetta. This is not normally an issue as it’s easy to substitute with bacon but – oh, horror of horrors – for the only time in as long as I can remember there was no bacon in my fridge or freezer. Yes, you read correctly: NO BACON! The perfectly good explanation for this is that the butcher from where I normally purchase bacon is undergoing renovations and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to buy either packaged stuff or overpriced bacon from particular supermarkets or delis.

So my brilliant idea was to use chorizo. Which then made me think of prawns. And with these two incorporations, the risotto in the end was no longer an all’arrabbiata. It was tasty nonetheless and is one of the two better risottos I’ve made over the years. I think my past problems have been taking too literally the instructions that say ‘wait until all stock is absorbed until adding further’ and I suspect I’ve been allowing the risotto to dry out a bit too much in the process. This recipe card actually instructed to ‘keep the rice wet’ which helped immensely in my case. Any thoughts, tips or pointers in this area?

The other unusual substitution I had to make was for the tinned tomatoes which were stipulated. I didn’t want to open the 800g can in the pantry to use only 300g of it and have to think of something else to do with the remainder in the near future (I know, serious laziness). You’ll see in the ingredients list that I’ve used a medium tomato chopped up, tomato paste and some tomato passata instead which worked quite well. The only thing missing in the end was some chopped parsley to sprinkle over the top for both colour and taste, but I really can’t handle having dying herbs in my fridge.

Risotto with Chorizo & Prawns (serves 2)

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         1 tbs olive oil

·         1 chorizo sausage, sliced into rounds

·         prawns (as many as you like), split in half lengthways

·         1 garlic cloved, crushed

·         ½ onion, finely diced

·         1 cup risotto rice, unwashed

·         700mL hot, simmering vegetable or chicken stock (you may need more or less than this)

·         1 medium ripe tomato, roughly chopped

·         1 tbs tomato paste

·         ½ cup tomato passata

Method:

1. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat and cook chorizo until almost crisp. Throw in prawns until opaque and curled. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Reduce heat to medium then add garlic and onion to the pan. Cook until onion is soft and translucent before adding rice. Stir rice to coat well before adding two ladles of stock. Allow to absorb almost completely before adding more stock, a ladleful at a time. Stir gently and keep adding enough stock to keep the rice wet.
3. Take a grain a rice and check for doneness – it should be soft and sticky but still retain a little bite. When rice is just about ready, throw in the tomato, paste and passata. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and the tomato is broken down. Season to taste.
4. Add reserved chorizo and prawns back to pan and stir until well combined and heated through. Serve risotto topped with chopped parsley and black pepper, if desired.

happy cooking!

Sam’s Café, 27 Dec 2009

It is still early in the evening after dinner at Mumu Grill when a friend in our dining party suggests somewhere a little different for dessert. She tells us there’s a dessert place in Epping that does Asian-flavoured desserts with modern twists which are often made fresh to order. We all hop in our respective cars, it starts raining on the way and there is miscommunication about its exact location, but we find Sam’s Café eventually which is hidden in an alcove under a couple of blocks of high-rise apartments.

The place is a Hong Kong-style (fusion) café or “cha chaan teng” (茶餐廳). It’s not terribly large, the interiors are garish, the menu is full of Chinglish and not very descriptive, but thankfully there is a wall full of photo examples of most dishes. Presumably it’s run by a fellow by the name of Sam whom we think is in the kitchen along with his wife who is in charge of desserts.

I order an ice-cream and red (azuki) bean shaved ice drink (雪糕紅豆冰) which strangely lacks the usual inclusion of evaporated milk. As a result the drink is sweet but watery, although the ice-cream does provide a little needed creaminess. A friend has ordered the deep-fried taro sticks (炸芋條) which appear to come coated in a light cornstarch-type batter and sprinkled with icing sugar. The batons of taro are surprisingly crisp and flaky without the starchy stodginess of when they are stewed.

There is a 20 minute wait on soufflés so, as Monsieur Poisson and I are the last ones to be seated, a couple have been ordered prior to our arrival. But these are not your usual soufflé flavours – the one in the pink ramekin below is mango, while the one in the yellow is durian. Neither are the traditional flat-topped soufflés but both are nicely risen and thankfully the durian variety is not too pungent as I am not a big fan of its flavour (as opposed to Monsieur Poisson).

Someone has also ordered the puff pastry-topped sweet tofu soup (蘇皮豆腐花), often also called “tofu flower”. The hot sugar syrup with layers of lightly-flavoured silken tofu is served in a mug topped with a layer of puff pastry that has been decorated with heart-shaped cutouts.

Monsieur Poisson has chosen the apple pie which is not so much a pie as turnovers. They are served with a generous amount of cold ice-cream which I love when contrasted with the hot filling of the apple parcels.

My dessert of choice is the mango filo fingers (芒果卷) which are nice and crisp on the outside but unfortunately the mango has some icy bits still in the centre. The desserts are cheap though, all coming in at under $10 per serve, so we have no complaints but it must be noted that there is a minimum spend of $10 per person here. Whether this is an all day thing or just a rule for later at night I didn’t take note, but nonetheless I wouldn’t mind going back and trying their other meals sometime in the future.

Sam’s Café

Shop 32, 74-76 Rawson St (near cnr Carlingford Rd & Beecroft Rd), Epping NSW

Tel: (04) 24 046 377

Opening Hours:  Mon-Wed  6pm-10pm (dinner only)

Thurs-Sun  12:30pm-3pm (lunch)

                  6pm-10pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Mumu Grill, 27 Dec 2009

With our group of friends mostly being overseas at Christmas we didn’t get a chance to have our usual gathering, so we rounded up the few people who were around for a casual dinner a couple of days after the event. And with Mumu Grill being within our vicinity, I suggested it as a place to try for their grass-fed beef.

A reservation was made through their online bookings system. My only worry was that they may not have been open in this Christmas-to-New-Year period and that some lonely computer had spat out an automated email response to my request. However we arrive to a warming, wood-panelled restaurant that is most definitely open for business.

There is a lot of trouble between Monsieur Poisson and myself in deciding what to eat. For some reason we are both feeling rather unhungry that evening which results in us ordering only one starter and one main meal between the two of us. However friends of ours do not share this issue and start with the ‘Fried baby squid’ which are lightly dusted with spices and, if I don’t remember wrong, a side of aioli.

Monsieur Poisson and I start with the ‘Zucchini flowers stuffed with herbed ricotta’ which are fried to a beautiful golden brown. Though not as large or encased in as light a batter as those at Café Sopra, there is a light and fluffy centre of herbed ricotta to be found within.

The following ‘Slow roast Bangalow pork shoulder’ is ordered by friends opposite us but I can’t remember whether I tasted it or not. However the crackling does look beautiful, no?

And so with Monsieur Poisson and I having smaller appetites than usual, we go with the combination option of ‘Steak and ribs with chips’. The ribs in question are beef ones and the bones are huge! They taste quite tangy and by the end of our meal we still can’t place the mysterious tang-imparting ingredient. The steak is my favourite cut of sirloin and the chips come in a bowl on the side. The chips are lightly salted but, oh, how I wish there was some mayonnaise to go with these.

Unfortunately due to us not being very hungry, we didn’t get to try as many dishes as we would have liked. I was eyeing the list of ‘Small Dishes’ on the menu rather fondly but that will have to wait to another time for us to do them justice.

Mumu Grill

70 Alexander St (cnr Ernest St), Crows Nest NSW

Tel: (02) 9460 6877

Opening Hours:  Mon & Tues  5:30pm-10:30pm

Wed-Sun  12pm-3pm (lunch)

    5:30pm-10:30pm (dinner)

happy eating!

Big Brekky (again!), 19 Dec 2009

I feel like I’ve come full circle as my first ever food post was about Big Brekky. Monsieur Poisson and I were most enamoured with this little café after our visit and he was rather jealous that I was, on this occasion, dining there again with Mistress and not him.

We find ourselves in the area as I have a wedding dress fitting nearby to get to following our brunch/lunch date. Perhaps not the wisest of scheduling moves but the bridal store only had afternoon appointments that day and it was getting awfully close to Christmas. Parking is once again easy to find and we are very fortunate to nab a table for two just as a couple of diners vacate. The café is otherwise full around midday and an orderly queue forms at the door soon after we’re seated.

It is a hot day and Mistress quenches her thirst with a rosy hued watermelon juice, while I find it hard to pass up the opportunity of enjoying a flat white made from Campos coffee.

Mistress orders the eggs ‘Atlantic’ which is the ‘Florentine’ I had on my previous visit but with the addition of smoked salmon. Creamy Hollandaise with poached eggs, lightly wilted spinach, smoked salmon on toasted sweet brioche is such a winning combination of complementary flavours and textures.

I go for the ‘Sweetcorn fritters with bacon, avocado, sour cream and tomato salsa’ which we did not get to try previously. It is a very generous serve and I was eating it forever whilst giving my jaw a good workout chewing all the different components. The sour cream and avocado offer creaminess to the sweet fritters and bacon, of course, the saltiness. The salsa is surprisingly fine and flavoursome, tasting more like a chunky dip to be served with crackers or similar rather than your usual juicy salsa.

Water is provided to the table without us needing to ask and we spend a good deal of time catching up on girly gossip. This café really does breakfast and brunch dishes well and I’m looking forward to eating there again soon.

Big Brekky

316 Stanmore Rd (cnr Albert St), Petersham NSW

Tel: (02) 9569 8588

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  7am-3pm

                        Sun & Pub Hols  8am-3pm

happy eating!

Jamie in the Park, 14 March 2010

Jamie Oliver recently graced our shores and performed a couple of his energetic brand of live shows in Melbourne. The bonus part was that following these he came to Sydney and performed an open-air show in Centennial Park for free! I came to know about this event through the powers of mX on the way home one day but the advertisement was vague. The Centennial Parklands website was not much better and only described the event as featuring ‘live entertainment’, so for all anyone knew it could’ve just been a pre-recorded show played on a large screen in the park. Nonetheless, I made sure I remembered to try for tickets come 9am on Friday 5 March when they officially became available because who doesn’t like a free event?

I was all prepared and made sure I was logged in, fingers poised at the ready, prior to the time tickets would be ‘on sale’. When the little notice went from ‘tickets available soon’ to ‘tickets available now’ I clicked away furiously in the hope of securing some tickets. Fifteen minutes went by without reward but my spirits were high. At 9:30am I still held hope and at 9:50am I officially gave up. I was disappointed, until the husband let me know that he’d managed to nab 4 tickets, the maximum allowed, within five minutes of them becoming available.

Show evening swung around, the skies were clear and the evening featured the company of my two lovely ladies, Wifey and Mistress. The instructions for the event were to bring-your-own picnic dinner and I absolutely love picnics. Contributions from me included savoury tartlets made simply by pressing squares of store-bought shortcrust pastry into a muffin tray and filling them with mushroom, sundried tomato, pesto and haloumi, as well as ones with peas and haloumi and baking at 190°C for around 10 minutes.

And another rendition of finger sandwiches from me as well!

Wifey bought a small cheesecake that had a wonderfully fluffy texture that was topped with a berry jelly layer and encrusted with flaked almonds around the outside.

Seating for the event was unallocated across an expanse of grass although there were several rows of fold-up chairs at the front of the stage presumably for guests that were circulating in the VIP tents on our arrival. A band provided live musical entertainment pre-show and stayed on as Jamie’s back-up music throughout. And why would he need music, I hear you ask? Well, the first dish he demonstrated was pan-fried scallops with asparagus and prosciutto which he cooked on an adjacent stove burner whilst playing the drums to Oasis’ Wonderwall! At times he even used a drumstick to double as a wooden spoon.

The evening continued in Jamie Oliver’s inimitable excited manner and featured television clips from his time at River Café as well as other television series. Ben O’Donoghue was invited on stage to help out with a version of River Café’s infamous Chocolate Nemesis. Jamie talked about his plans to start a Ministry of Food in Australia and all proceeds from sales of the $15 show program were going towards this cause. Now to be involved with something like that would be a dream job for people like us!

I wasn’t able to attend any of the Taste of Sydney events in the lead up to Jamie in the Park due to wedding planning commitments as well as having to attend a friend’s wedding, but you can read about it and drool over photos at various blogs. However Jamie Oliver’s free event at Centennial Park was a most ample consolation prize for me, especially when we spotted the shadowy outlines of Manu Feildel, Pete Evans, Matt Moran and Alistair McLeod in the distance with the VIP crowd.

happy cooking & happy eating!

Café Ism, 17 Dec 2009

I’m trying to remember how Monsieur Poisson and I ended up at Café Ism for a late lunch one gloriously warm December’s day but all I get is complete blankness. We must have been in the area for some reason or other and the only clues the little notebook has to offer relates to the yumminess of the food alone.

This small café is located on a corner shop space with a few outdoor seats and small, low tables more suitable for coffee than food. The inside of the café is small and cosy with stylish French touches and bar seating which looks out the window across to the park. It’s well ventilated despite the heat and is a place I feel I could spend many a good hour at leisure.

We start off with our usual coffees – a caffe latte for Monsieur Poisson and a flat white for myself. Both come decorated with a neat fern pattern across the milk foam and chilled water is brought without our asking to the table. The coffees are aromatic and the right temperature, even on a hot day like this.

Monsieur Poisson has the ‘ISM Burger’ which has a patty of lamb and lean beef, tangy beetroot relish, jam-like caramelised onions, tomato, lettuce, cheese and mayonnaise held in the confines of lightly toasted Turkish bread. The bread is light, doughy and not too thick. And although the burger is not served with fries, it is of a substantial size and has the right ratio between meat, bread and salad all for $14.

I can’t go past the Croque Madame with its promise of brioche and eggs. What I receive is larger than I expect with ham and cheese sandwiched between two thin slices of soft, more-ish brioche topped with sliced tomato, Béchamel and a couple of fried eggs with beautifully golden, gooey yolks. The ample green salad and tomato wedges on the side help to cut through any richness and offers a very balanced meal for the measly sum of $13.

There are magazines and newspapers in the corner that we don’t get around to reading but it’s the food that proves not only to be tasty but great value as well. It’s quite hard to find cafés with meal prices under the $15 mark these days and with this sort of quality, I urge you to try the understated Café Ism for yourself.

Café Ism

187 Wilson St (cnr Randle St), Newtown NSW

Tel: (02) 9519 1166

Opening Hours:  Mon-Sat  8:30am-4pm 

                        Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #8: Warm salmon, potato & dill salad

This time of year is wonderful for cooking and entertaining as the sunsets are late and low and the weather permits for light, summery fare during the day and slightly heartier meals in the evenings. Gone (mostly) is the oppressive heat and sticky humidity which seems to plague Sydney’s summers in more recent years.

This recipe is not so much a salad in its own right as pan-fried fish served with a potato salad. Everyone has their own favourite or a version of their mother’s potato salad, so feel free to serve this alongside your salmon instead. I went and mixed spreadable cream cheese through mine thinking it was a brilliant idea as salmon and cream cheese are always so happy in each other’s company. What really would have worked better is something runnier like sour cream or crème fraîche.

The salmon I’ve used is skinless as opposed to fillets with the skin on as pictured on the recipe card. That is what I had my hands on and it worked well nonetheless. The chunkier end was cooked very much to my liking but unfortunately that meant the flatter end was a little overcooked. Overall a very filling dish despite its unassuming size, which can be attributed to the oiliness of the salmon and the starchiness of the potatoes.

Pan-fried Salmon with Warm Potato Salad

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         2 small-medium potatoes, peeled & sliced

·         ½ tsp seeded mustard

·         1 tsp baby capers, rinsed (optional)

·         2 tbs sour cream, crème fraîche or mayonnaise

·         1 tbs cooking oil

·         2 fillets of salmon, pinboned

Method:

1. Place potatoes in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Salt well, bring to the boil then simmer until potatoes are tender but still firm. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. Season salmon and place flat-side down in pan. Cook until browned and crisp. Turn to the other side and cook to your liking. Remove and set aside to rest while preparing potato salad.
3. Mix together mustard, capers and sour cream. Add drained potatoes and adjust seasoning if necessary. To serve, divide potato salad amongst plates and top with fillet of salmon. Garnish with fresh, soft herbs or a side salad if desired.

happy cooking!

Epicure Recipe Card #5: Wok-fried Green Beans with Chilli Pork

Jill Dupleix obviously likes her stir-fries because there are more than a few in this pack of recipe cards! But rest assured, for I think I may have finally exhausted their numbers. For this particular recipe card I stuck pretty true to the ingredients and instructions with the only major difference being that I sliced up a fillet of pork instead of using mince as advised. Didn’t have any pork mince to hand at the time but, of course, the beauty of stir-fries is their flexibility so feel free to use chicken, beef or lamb instead.

Wok-fried Green Beans with Chilli Pork

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         200g pork fillet, thinly sliced

·         1 quantity of My All-purpose Cantonese Marinade

·         1 tbs cooking oil

·         1 tbs shredded ginger (optional)

·         1 small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

·         2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

·         ¼ white onion, finely sliced (optional)

·         200g green beans, sliced into lengths

·         ½ capsicum, sliced

Method:

1. Toss pork with the marinade and set aside 20-30 minutes.
2. When ready to cook, heat the oil in a wok or saucepan to almost smoking on high heat. Add ginger, if using, for around 10 seconds before adding chilli and garlic. Stir-fry until fragrant before adding the pork. Keep moving meat around in pan until most pieces are cooked to medium-well before removing from pan and setting aside. 

3. Add onion to the hot pan and allow to soften slightly before adding beans to the pan. Stir-fry until beans are bright green then cover with a lid for about a minute before removing lid to toss around. Cover for another minute or two before adding capsicum. Replace lid and check at 1 minute intervals for how cooked the vegetables are.
4. When vegetables are almost done, return pork to the pan and adjust seasoning only if necessary. Make sure to keep stir-frying until meat is cooked through before serving.

happy cooking!