The King of (Grilled) Mushrooms

"Chi mangia bene, vive bene" ... we learnt this phrase from a couple of incredible Italian nonagenarians last week. And how better to "mangia bene" than to eat King Mushrooms.

In our recent foray to Ferraro Foods we managed to get our hot little hands on what has become one of our favourite mushrooms - the King Trumpet Mushroom, otherwise known as Pleurotus eryngii. It's the largest of the oyster mushroom genus and oh my, does it provide a toothsome feast.

One of our favourite ways of cooking this mushroom is to slice it longitudinally into 3mm slices, marinade it overnight (or at least 3-4h), grill it and serve it on a bed of pasta aglio olio pepperoncino. As a rough guide, 1 large mushroom is good for 1 serving.

Grilled King Mushrooms
Ingredients:

3 large King Mushrooms

Marinade:

• 2 Tabsp Olive Oil
• 2 Tabsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
• Freshly ground sea salt (amount depends on how salty your soy sauce is)
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients of the marinade
2. Slice mushrooms lengthwise into 3mm thick slices
3. Pour marinade over the mushrooms
4. Turn mushrooms over periodically to ensure all surfaces are coated
5. Grill under a hot grill till nicely brown on both sides

While mushrooms are on the grill, prepare your pasta of choice

Pasta Aglio Olio Pepperoncino
Ingredients

• Pasta for 3
• 1 Tabsp finely chopped garlic
• 3-4 Tabsp olive oil
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 Tabsp finely chopped parsley

Method:

1. Prepare 3 portions of pasta according to package directions but make it very al dente
2. Whilst pasta is boiling, heat 3 Tabs olive oil in a skillet
3. Add the chopped garlic and chilli flakes and fry till garlic is fragrant but not brown
4. Drain pasta, reserving about 1.5 cups of pasta water
5. Add pasta to skillet, with about 1 cup of pasta water, add parsley and mix well with chilli - garlic mixture. 
6. Bring to boil and test pasta for done-ness (this is why you want to remove the pasta from the water when it is just short of "done" - cooking it in the sauce for another 2minutes or so makes it much tastier, without getting soggy. And if you have good "bronzato style" pasta, the sauce sticks on the rough surface and makes for a much tastier mouthful)

Serve mushrooms on top of pasta, top with a poached egg if desired and generous parmesan shavings. Mangia!

BBB Time!

It was World Cup 2014 final day and we were too busy watching to fix anything fancy. And we really didn't want to be slaving over a hot stove. Besides, it was waaay too hot outside and inside the house to be fixing anything fancy.

The easiest thing was to quickly put together some burgers and chips and have everything cook in the over at the same time.

Just in case you are looking for a recipe for juicy beef burgers - we made those 2 weeks ago but in our haste and greed to eat... we forgot to take pictures - so I'll post that in the near future...). These are vegetarian burgers and our chips are low fat, oven baked, not quite full fat, but certainly full flavour!

Black Bean Burgers (BBB

• 1.5 cups cooked black beans, well drained, roughly mashed with a fork*
• 1 Tabsp ketchup (Heinz of course!)
• 1 Tabsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp sweet paprika (smoked will give a nice char grilled flavour)
• 1 small carrot - grated
• 3 stalks celery - finely chopped
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp crunchy deep fried shallots (from Asian supermarkets)
• 1 tsp crunchy deep fried garlic (from Asian supermarkets)
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste (test fry a small batch)

*do not use a food processor - it becomes too mushy

Method:

• mix everything together and form into 4 patties - I used a 4"egg ring to help shape and pack the mixture in
• place on tray and refrigerate for an hour to firm up
• Bake in oven with chips - at 400F, for 15min, turning halfway to get both sides nice and brown

Oven - baked chips (not french fries)
large baking potatoes - I use all purpose, but  Yukon Gold is really tasty if you can get them

• Wash, scrub and peel if desired, cut into thick chips
• Blanch in boiling salted water (1 tsp salt to 1.5L water) for 10min
• Drain & pat dry
• Toss in a bowl with a sprinkling of olive oil, freshly ground sea salt and pepper
• Don't worry if chips get a rough surface - that will become a wonderful crunchy coating
• Lay on a well greased heated baking tray in a single layer*
• Bake in pre-heated oven 400F for 20min, turning over halfway**
• If chips are not brown at the end of cooking time, stick them under the broiler till desired brown-ness.

* place the baking tray in the oven while it is being heated up
** If you have a touch of Obsessive - Compulsiveness, you might turn each chip individually, I just use a fish slice / spatula

Maybe we should have had frankfurters and sauerkraut and beer... considering who won the World Cup! DFB Weltmeister!

Staffordshire oatcakes

Burn's night(Jan 25th) is coming up and thinking back on our success with home-made haggis last year, we thought, "Can't we make oatcakes at home?" (we really liked the Walker's oatcakes that we ate with our home-made haggis, neeps and tatties).
So, we decided to search recipes to make oatcakes on the internet, and found several recipes for oatcakes. Quite often with surfing the net, one gets distracted from the original quest and we decided to try something we could eat for a hearty winter breakfast - fuel for the furnace before hitting the slopes!

And that's how we came to try recipe for Staffordshire oatcakes from Food.com. They looked easier to make and besides, we had watched a program on TV just the other night (you can find the video in full here) that gives a bit of background into this rustic snack that originated on (surprise!) North Staffordshire and are usually eaten with savoury fillings in contrast to maple syrup and butter.

This delicious pancake requires some forward planning so, we prepared the batter the night before and left it in the fridge to rise overnight.

Oatmeal batter before rising overnight

The next morning, half expecting the fridge door to be ajar and us having to wade through gloopy batter overflowing from the fridge, we opened the bedroom door and... it was all good. The batter had risen nicely and stayed in the mixing bowl. The next step was simply to fire up the stove, stick a skillet on and fry them like any other pancake. Traditionally, these oatcakes are about 8 inches in diameter (so that you can wrap bacon, cheese, sausages and other wicked stuff in them).

pancake cooking in the skillet, note bubbles on the surface

Once the bottom is golden (about 2-3min), carefully turn them over (these oatcakes have less flour than regular pancakes and are more crumbly) and cook for another 2-3 min.

Golden Staffordshire Oatcakes

We tried them savoury (with fried Spam and cheese and ketchup) and sweet, with butter and maple syrup as well as with peanut butter and jam. All three were delicious, but I think it was best savoury. Try it! let me know which filling works best for you!

RECIPE:
Ingredients:

• 150g fine oatmeal (whiz up regular oatmeal if needed)
• 150g lb wholemeal flour
• 300ml Cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 7oz sachet dry yeast

Method:

1. Heat water and milk in saucepan to 30C
2. Mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk and then add the warm water/milk and whisk till well mixed. It will be quite runny.
3. Cover bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for at least an hour (till nice and bubbly) or overnight in the fridge.
4. When ready, give batter a good stir and cook on a lightly greased griddle or skillet. The pancakes are traditionally about 6-8inched wide and quite thin.
5. Cook for about 2-3min on one side, until golden and then flip over gently and brown the other side
6. Keep on a warm plate whilst remaining are cooking.

The recipe yields 6 large or 8 medium oatcakes

comfort food..

I guess the last post gave some energy to overcome the inertia of not posting for such a long time.. Just a few days ago, dashing through the snow.. (not in a open sleigh) to the supermarket to pick up "any veg will do" for dinner, I chanced upon a pile of beautiful, plump, purple eggplants -  2 for 99c! Who would have thought to get such summer bounty in midwinter?
Grabbed 2 and gleefully drove up the hill, past semi trailer trucks floundering in the slushy snow. So thankful for 4WD.

But, this is a food blog, so back to my eggplants. I've cooked the first using a recipe that I've used over and over because it is so simple and the result is (IMHO) rather yummy. I use dehydrated onion and garlic for the garnish because they crisp up super fast

(Steamed) Eggplant drizzled with soy sauce & sesame oil

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant
• coarse salt - several teaspoons
• dehyrdrated onion flakes 1-2 tsp
• dehyrdrated minced garlic 1 tsp
• soy sauce 1 Tabsp
• sesame oil 1 tsp
• peanut oil 2 Tabsp

Method

1. Cut the eggplant into longitudinal strips about 2cm wide (some prefer to peel the skin, but I'm lazy and I don't)
2. Sprinkle salt over the eggplant and make sure all the cut surfaces are coated with salt
3. Leave aside for 15min or until the cut surfaces of the eggplant start weeping
4. Rinse off all the salt and gently squeeze the strips 
5. Place in heatproof dish and either steam till tender or microwave, covered for about 5-8minutes
6. Drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil
7. Heat the peanut oil in a small saucepan and when the oil is hot, add the dehydrated garlic and onion and fry till brown - watch carefully - they brown and burn very easily
8. Pour hot oil and onion/garlic over hot eggplant - the sizzle is very satisfying!

Lor Hon Zhai

Lor Hon Zhai 罗汉菜 (Braised Mixed Vegetables)

Tired of the meat laden food that the Holiday season, I cooked up a batch of  Lor Hon Zhai. This popular vegetarian dish that is often served during Chinese New Year (CNY). The name means Buddha's delight and some families eat only vegetarian dishes during the 1st day of CNY - I don't, (too greedy) but I remember my Cantonese grandma (from whom I kind of absorbed knowledge of this recipe) did.
Every family has its own version of this dish; there are as many variations as there are ingredients. Although the preparation is a bit tedious, it is very easy  to cook. Many versions contain fermented red bean curd (南乳) which gives the dish its characteristic red / rose coloured sauce and distinct, savoury, slightly pungent flavour akin to a good blue cheese.

Fermented bean curd (Nam Yue)

I've listed the ingredients below, in the quantities that I used, but if you are fond of say, mushrooms, go ahead and add more. Other common ingredients are snow peas, dried lily bulbs 金针 and gingko nuts). Note the absence of garlic - which is supposed to be verboten in vegetarian food - stimulates and arouses it seems. Oh well.


Ingredients:

• 1/2 head Chinese (Napa) 大白菜 cabbage , cut into large-ish pieces about 2-3cm wide
• 1 large carrot cut into 0.5cm slices

  

  Napa cabbage, carrots and red bell pepper

• 8 dried shitake mushrooms, rinsed and soaked in warm water
• 1 can straw mushrooms, drained, and mushrooms halved
• 1 cup dried black wood ear 木耳, rinsed and soaked in water
• a couple of dried bean sticks 腐竹, rinsed and soaked in cold water, then cut into 3-4cm sections

  

  Clockwise from top left: shitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, wood ear, bean sticks
• 1.5 cup deep fried tofu squares 炸豆腐, soaked in boiling water, squeezed dry and cut in halves

  

  deep fried tofu puffs

• Cellophane noodles 粉絲 (mung bean noodles), soaked in cold water, cut into 5cm lengths (easier with scissors)

  

  Bean Thread (Mung bean vermicelli)

• 2-3 cubes fermented bean curd 南乳
• salt to taste
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cups water

Method:
chuck everything into pot - cook - eat. Really, it's that simple, all the work is in the prep. Ok, for those who want it spelt out:

1. Heat the 2 oils in a large pot
2. Gently fry the fermented bean curd for a few minutes till fragrant - mash it up with a wooden spoon during this time. Be careful, it will spit and spatter
3. Add all the ingredients to the pot, add water
4. Bring to boil, the cover and simmer till vegetables are tender but not mushy. 
5. Season to taste with salt and sugar.
6. Serve with fragrant Thai Jasmine Rice