Cucumber Mousse

Posted on 20 January 2013 by Linda Peek

We have recently had several days in Canberra where the mercury hit 40 degrees Celsius, which is 104 Fahrenheit for the benefit of my British and American readers. Today is due to be another scorcher, our cooling system is kaput and they can’t come and fix it till tomorrow. So what do you eat when you hardly have the energy to read a book or watch the cricket on TV? You certainly don’t want to turn the oven on and make matters worse.

We all know the expression As Cool as a Cucumber, so as I was wondering what to make with the first Lebanese cucumbers we picked yesterday I remembered a recipe for Cucumber Mousse, given to me ages ago by a UK friend called Felicity. I had some cooked peeled prawns in the freezer and always keep some Philadelphia-style cream cheese in the fridge – unopened it keeps for ages and is handy for dips – so there was no need to go and buy anything. Perfect.

Felicity’s recipe says 1 sachet or half an ounce of powdered gelatine. After reading the instructions on my packet and looking on the internet I decided an Aussie tablespoon (20 ml) would work and it did.

Back in the seventies recipes using gelatine were all the rage. I remember making salmon mousse, strawberry mousse, lemon mousse and a tart which had a biscuit base and a filling of evaporated milk – whipped furiously until thick – then set with gelatine and decorated with tinned apricots. Fortunately that recipe has well and truly died and been buried, but Cucumber Mousse is still a refreshing option for a hot day. This recipe makes a good starter or light lunch. The first day I served the mousses with two prawns and a drizzle of sauce round the plate, as a starter. The second day they became a more substantial dish for lunch, with the addition of some smoked salmon rolls – even nicer. If you wanted to be really snazzy you could arrange some very thin slices of cucumber in the moulds before tipping in the mousse.

1 Tbs powdered gelatine
5 Tbs white wine or cider vinegar
1 scant Tbs sugar
1 large telegraph cucumber or 3 small Lebanese ones
250g cream cheese (I used Woolies Home Brand) at room temp
150ml cream (generous half cup) sour cream, creme fraiche or thick Greek yoghurt
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Peeled cooked prawns and/or smoked salmon to garnish
Green Shallot Dressing to serve

Place vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatine over the top then zap in the microwave for about 30 secs to dissolve completely. Remove about 60% of peel from the cucumbers and trim the ends. Cut into chunks and place in food processor or blender and puree. Add cream cheese and puree, then cream and lastly gelatine mixture, stopping from time to time to scrape down the sides. Season to taste then tip into 8 half cup ramekins or one large mould and chill for a couple of hours or overnight. Dip moulds briefly in hot water, run a knife with a thin blade around the outsides, then tip out. Decorate with prawns, smoked salmon or both and chives. Drizzle some Green Shallot Dressing around the plate. If you don’t have any green shallots (spring onions) substitute chives or even basil.

Serves 8 as a starter

Mangoes in Ginger Wine

Posted on 17 January 2013 by Linda Peek

If you want to be sure to get every bit of flesh off the stone the best place to eat a mango is in the bath.

My mother in law once attended an official lunch at Government House in Hong Kong. For dessert the waiter passed round a platter of whole fruit. She was tempted by the mangoes, but knew that this would not be a good idea. Eating a whole mango delicately with a knife and fork is not easy and you wouldn’t want it to shoot across the table and land on another guest’s lap. Experienced guests like my mother in law played it safe and took a banana or an apple. One lady, through lack of experience or perhaps without thinking, chose a mango. Everyone finished their fruit quite quickly then sat back to watch this poor woman struggle with her mango. It took forever, but to give her credit she persisted and finished the task. Perhaps a round of applause would have been a nice gesture.

Here in Australia the mango season is in full swing. I’m always tempted to buy a case of 12, but there are just the two of us and after a few days the mangoes have ripened to the point where the remaining few need to be used immediately. Mangoes in ginger wine is a delicious solution and will keep in the fridge for a day or two. I think this recipe will appeal to my friends at the Sarojin Resort in Thailand and I’m sure they could cut up the fruit more decoratively than I have. Perhaps the chef can give me a lesson next time I’m there.

4 large fresh mangoes
¾ cup Stone’s ginger wine
2 Tbs chopped glace ginger or ginger preserved in syrup

Peel and slice mangoes and place in a serving bowl. Heat ginger wine with ginger and pour over. Chill and serve very cold.

Serves 4-6

Julie Bishop’s Prawn Risotto

Posted on 15 January 2013 by Linda Peek

The other evening I switched onto the ABC and watched Kitchen Cabinet. In this series political journalist and commentator Annabel Crabb visits a politician in their home for a chat about politics and life in general. The conversation takes place over a meal – Annabel takes the dessert and the politician cooks one of their favourite recipes for the main course.

In this episode Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop produced what looked like a delicious prawn risotto. Having made a mental note of the main ingredients (prawns, rice, celery, coriander, Cinzano, pine nuts and Parmesan) I decided to recreate it this evening.

For dessert Annabel brought Eton mess, which is basically whipped cream with pieces of meringue and berries folded through. A sort of deconstructed Pavlova!

2 Tbs oil or 25g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
350-400g peeled raw prawns
1/3 cup Cinzano or other white vermouth
2 cups Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
To serve:
Lightly toasted pine nuts
Chopped fresh coriander
Grated Parmesan cheese
Steamed and buttered asparagus

Heat oil or butter in a large heavy-based pan and cook onion and celery until soft but not brown, stirring. Add rice and cook stirring until translucent. Add prawns and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes. Add Cinzano and cook, stirring to evaporate some of the alcohol. Slowly add stock, about a cup at a time, simmering until absorbed and continue cooking and adding more stock until the rice is tender. Risotto should be wet and slightly soupy, not dry like paella or pilaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper and if liked add a final drop of Cinzano.

Serve risotto garnished with the pine nuts, coriander and Parmesan and the asparagus on the side.

Serves 4

Rocky Road: Eat and Get Fat

Posted on 12 January 2013 by Linda Peek

When I asked my friend Venessa for her recipe for Rocky Road she sent it by email and at the bottom she wrote “Eat and Get Fat”. So I thought that was an appropriate title for the New Year, when many people are resolving to lose weight!

According to Wikipedia, Rocky Road was invented in Australia in 1853 as a way of on-selling confectionery spoiled by the long journey from Europe. Gold miners in towns outside Melbourne, such as Ballarat, were wealthy but uncultured. Unscrupulous businessmen took advantage of these men, mixing the spoiled confectionery with low quality chocolate and other “filler” ingredients, such as locally foraged nuts. The name Rocky Road is derived from the rocky road travellers had to take to get to the gold fields.

Here’s Venessa’s recipe which I have doubled and added a few substitutes in brackets. I left out the coconut in deference to someone who doesn’t like it. This is an adaptable recipe, so quantities are approximate. I added a few more marshmallows to make up for not including the coconut.

400g block of chocolate, broken into squares
1 cup snakes (or other chewy jelly-type sweets), cut up with scissors
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup marshmallows snipped in half with scissors
1 cup roasted salted macadamia nuts (or other nuts), roughly chopped

Grease and line a slice tin or square cake tin (approx 25 cm) with non-stick baking paper or use a silicone pan which doesn’t need to be lined. Melt chocolate in microwave, approximately 1 minute on high or until melted. Stop to stir halfway through. Add all ingredients and mix well. Tip the rocky road into the tin and smooth the top. Refrigerate for half an hour or until firm, but cut into squares before it sets rock hard. Eat and get fat.

Variation: for White Rocky Road use white chocolate.

Prunus Plum Jam

Posted on 9 January 2013 by Linda Peek

If you live in Australia and have access to a prunus tree, now is the time to make jam. In Canberra you find them in many public areas. The fruit which is not eaten by the birds just falls to the ground and rots. I have a friend whose dog thinks they’re delicious and eats any she can find at the park where we meet with our four legged friends. Her owner has to stop her so she doesn’t get an upset tummy. While the plums are too acid to appeal to most people uncooked, they make a delicious, tangy jam with a lovely bright red colour.

Prunus plums seem to ripen at different times on different trees, so you need to keep an eye on your target and pick them before it’s too late. As soon as the birds start to take an interest you need to be quick! One week they’re ready, the next they’re all gone.

The plums are quite small so removing the stones by hand after the fruit is cooked is the easiest way to do it, but it does involve getting your hands into the pot! If you miss some it only gives authenticity to the finished product. Well that’s what Matthew who was doing the de-stoning said.

The more pectin fruit has, the more acid it tastes and the more quickly it will set. Some jams, such as strawberry and apricot, can take forever to reach setting point, which is why recipes often suggest adding some lemon juice. One way to check if the jam has reached setting point is to put a small plate in the freezer and let it get very cold, then put a teaspoon of jam on the plate (taking the jam off the heat while you do it) to see if it sets. With experience you can tell just by looking. With Prunus Plum Jam it’s not really necessary to test because the fruit has lots of pectin and the jam sets very quickly. Many jam recipes call for the same weight of sugar as fruit, but we prefer ours to be more tangy so I always cut down. This jam is delicious on toast, with scones or swirled through thick Greek yoghurt as a dessert.

2 kg ripe prunus plums
500 ml water
1 kg sugar
1 knob of butter about the size of a walnut

Wash plums and place in a large heavy-based saucepan or preserving pan. Add water, bring to the boil and simmer, stirring often, until fruit is soft. Cool then remove as many stones as possible, by squeezing the fruit by hand. Add sugar and bring slowly to the boil, stirring. When sugar has dissolved boil steadily, stirring often, for 3-5 minutes until setting point has reached, then add the butter. Meanwhile heat 6-8 clean jam jars in the microwave on high for 2 minutes (without their lids). Pour hot jam into jars and seal immediately. Keeps for up to a year in a dark cupboard. Refrigerate after opening.

Makes 6-8 jars depending on size

Berry Meringue Ice Cream Slice

Posted on 7 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Not everyone likes Christmas pudding, so I like to serve two desserts on Christmas day, so people can choose. This Bill Granger recipe for an easy ice cream slice full of berries and chunks of meringue appeared in the December issue of Delicious. We have raspberries in the garden at the moment, so it was perfect.

Some people, who shall remain nameless, had both the Christmas pudding and the ice cream slice. They blamed this indulgence on me saying it was too hard to choose.

350g berries (I used raspberries)
600ml thickened cream or whipping cream
2 Tbs icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
50g bought meringues broken into chunks
To serve:
Runny honey and extra berries (I used a mix of raspberries and halved strawberries)

Grease a 1.5L loaf pan and line with plastic wrap or use a silicone pan which doesn’t need to be lined. Drop some berries into the loaf pan – these will be the top of the slice. Whip cream with sugar and vanilla to soft peaks then fold in berries and meringue. Pour into pan, shake to remove any air bubbles, and smooth top. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 3 hours or overnight.

Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving. Tip out and garnish with extra berries, drizzle with honey and cut into slices to serve.

Serves 8-10

Note: frozen raspberries are fine for the ice cream, but if you can get them fresh ones are best for the garnish. Mango and passionfruit could be used instead of berries.

Garlic butter

Posted on 3 January 2013 by Linda Peek

As I made a batch of garlic butter to have in the fridge over the holiday season I thought to myself that it’s one of those recipes which has become “retro”. Popular in the seventies and eighties, we used it in garlic bread, on steaks and grilled fish and in Chicken Kiev. But then it went out of favour, along with prawn cocktail, beef bourgignon, steak Diane and all the other dishes we enjoyed before gastronomy took off. Suddenly these recipes weren’t posh enough.

Whenever I serve garlic bread to a crowd – fresh from the oven and oozing home-made garlic butter – it always disappears. And a dollop of garlic butter on a freshly barbecued steak, piece of fish or succulent prawn is delicious. So here’s the recipe. Oh and it’s probably a good idea to label the container so the kids don’t ask why the butter’s gone green!

3 heaped Tbs fresh parsley leaves, stalks removed
3 Tbs snipped chives or the green ends of spring onions
1-2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 250g tub spreadable butter
pinch salt

Place herbs in food processor and process till finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides halfway through. Add garlic, butter and salt and process till mixed. Return to the plastic butter container and refrigerate. Keeps for 2-3 weeks in the fridge, but much longer in the freezer. Just thaw long enough to use what you need then put back.

Garlic Bread: make diagonal cuts in a French baguette, not quite through to the bottom. Spread each slice with garlic butter. Wrap the loaf in foil and refrigerate or freeze till needed. Thaw if frozen then bake in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Gravlax

Posted on 1 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon which has been cured in salt, sugar and flavoured with dill. It’s popular all over Scandinavia and traditionally served with dark bread and a sweet mustard sauce as a starter or as part of a buffet, which they call a smorgasbord.

When we were posted to Copenhagen we ate a lot of gravlax and I acquired the recipe. It’s very easy to make, cheaper than the bought version and can be made ahead and kept in the freezer. Perfect to whip out as needed and serve to guests over the holiday season. Serve as an alternative to smoked salmon, with bagels and cream cheese or in canapes.

My original recipe said to use salmon fillets with the skin on, which is what I have always done. However, I found some very nice fillets in Costco, with the skin and pin bones all removed and decided to see how they would work. They were perfect, with no waste. Removing pin bones is a pain in the neck so all I can say is good old Costco as there are absolutely no bones. If you buy fillets with the skin on that’s fine. People love the sauce so I usually double the recipe. Any left over also goes well with smoked salmon, ham, cold roast beef or chicken.

If two fillets is too much just do one, cut in half, and sandwiched with half the salt, sugar and dill mixture.

¼ cup salt
¼ cup sugar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 whole salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed, each weighing 800-1200g
1 large bunch dill, finely chopped in food processor or by hand, including stalks
freshly ground black pepper

Mix salt, sugar, pepper and dill. Place about a third in a large ceramic or glass dish about the size of the salmon fillets and spread out evenly. Then place one fillet on top. Sprinkle with another third of the salt/sugar mixture, then place the second fillet on top. Sprinkle with remaining mixture, pressing it into the fish. Cover with plastic, place a small chopping board and a weight such as a brick on top then refrigerate for 4-6 days to “cure” the fish. Each day turn the salmon over.

Remove fillets and rinse off salt/sugar/dill mixture under the tap. Pat dry with paper towels. Wrap each fillet in plastic wrap and freeze until needed. I usually cut each fillet into 3 and wrap each piece individually before freezing, but a whole fillet looks more spectacular on a buffet table. Remove gravlax from the freezer and thaw a bit. Slice thinly on the diagonal while still slightly frozen, which makes it easier. Garnish with fresh dill and lemon wedges. Some people like to serve it with a few capers and slices of red onion. If liked serve with dark pumpernickel or rye bread and Sweet Mustard Sauce.

Sweet Mustard Sauce

¼ cup Dijon mustard
1 tsp hot English mustard (powder or ready made)
2 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs white wine or cider vinegar
⅓ cup vegetable oil
3 Tbs chopped fresh dill

Place all ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously to emulsify. Keep a few fronds of dill for garnish.

Fish ‘n Chips

Posted on 30 December 2012 by Linda Peek

I grew up in the UK in the 60s when there were almost as many fish and chip shops as there were pubs. As the fish and chips came out of the hot oil they were put into grease-proof paper bags, then wrapped in old newspapers. This created an unforgettable aroma as you ran home with the hot package and it didn’t detract at all from the flavour. They were delicious! Sixpenny worth of chips was an after school treat, doused with dark malt vinegar and sprinkled with salt. Now everything has to be wrapped in pristine white paper, prices have shot up, the batter on the fish seems thicker and many of the fish and chip shops I remember as a child have closed.

Everyone – well almost everyone – loves fish and chips. If you fall into that category then an electric deep fat fryer is a good investment. I keep mine in an old fridge in the garage, where we store wine and beer. I only use it for fish and chips so I leave the oil in the pan and use it 2-3 times over one or two months, before throwing it out and starting afresh.

This batter takes less than a minute to make and it’s very light and crunchy.

canola, sunflower oil or similar
3-4 medium potatoes (choose a variety suitable for chips)
400g thick, chunky white fish fillets, such as cod, hoki
1/3 cup self-raising flour
salt and pepper to taste
soda or sparkling mineral water
To serve:
Tartare sauce
lemon wedges
1-2 cups frozen peas, cooked

Heat oil in deep fat fryer. Peel and slice potatoes and cut into chips (fat or thin, as you like) then dry well with paper towels. Test oil and when a chip starts to sizzle as soon as you put it in, it’s hot enough. Cook chips until tender but pale, then lift the basket and let the oil get very hot again, before lowering for a final crisping. Tip chips into a dish lined with paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Cover loosely with foil so they stay hot.

While chips are cooking cut fish into long chunky sticks 2-3 cm wide. Mix flour with salt and pepper and enough soda water to make a very thick batter. Go slowly, you won’t need much. Add all the fish to the batter, then turn to coat thoroughly. When chips are done cook the fish for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Gently lower them into the oil one piece at a time. Drain on paper towels and serve with the chips, tartare sauce, lemon wedges and peas.

Serves 2-3

Note: if you don’t have a deep fat fryer a deep pan will do. The oil needs to be about 10cm deep.

Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Cucumber

Posted on 26 December 2012 by Linda Peek

Smoked salmon is much cheaper than it used to be, especially if you buy it in half kilo packets, so I usually have some “on the go” in the fridge. It’s handy for creating a quick salad or pasta dish such as this one, slightly adapted from a recipe in Delicious magazine.

Pink peppercorns, known as baies roses in French, are fragrant and only slightly peppery. According to Wikipedia, they are not real peppercorns but were so-called because they look like them. They go well with most recipes using smoked salmon or gravlax. You can probably tell from the photo that I only had chives and no dill, but it still tasted good!

400g spaghetti or fettuccine
1 Lebanese cucumber or half a telegraph cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and diced
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup sour cream or creme fraiche
1 Tbs white wine or white Balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbs capers, rinsed and drained
2 Tbs chopped dill
2 Tbs chopped chives
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon and juice of ½
200g smoked salmon, chopped
To garnish:
Extra chopped herbs
Pink peppercorns (the dry ones, see photo)
Or Salmon Roe

Sprinkle cucumber dice with salt and leave to drain in a colander for 30 mins then rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Cook pasta according to packet instructions, drain and mix with the oil. Mix sour cream, vinegar, garlic, lemon juice and rind, capers and herbs in a bowl. Then add pasta, cucumber and smoked salmon. Divide among 4 bowls and garnish with extra herbs and pink peppercorns or salmon roe. The dish will be warm rather than piping hot.