The Cookbook Challenge - Week 17 - Vietnamese - Chicken with Vietnamese Caramel Sauce

Yes, I'm late. I'm sorry. Fitting blogging in around my life is harder than I anticipated. Uni's back, and I went away for the weekend - not making excuses... ok, maybe I'm making excuses. But, I'm blogging now!


This week's recipe came from delicious. Magazine, June 2007 edition - Chicken with Vietnamese Caramel Sauce. This is a great mid-week dinner recipe as it's nice and quick, cheap, and delicious. Although, and I'm not quite sure how, I did manage to create a lot of washing up with this recipe. I have a reputation for using the maximum number of dishes and utensils possible when cooking though, so don't let this put you off the recipe. I expect I'm the exception. And that's what dishwashers are for.

Chicken with Vietnamese Caramel Sauce - delicious. June 2007


1 tbs sunflower oil (or substitute peanut oil)
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
125g brown sugar
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs tamarind concentrate
4 chicken breast fillets with skin on
steamed pak choy and white rice to serve


Heat half a tablespoon of oil in a pan over medium heat, add ginger and stir for one minute - watch it carefully as you don't want burnt ginger. The ginger flavour is really mild, so if you're looking for a ginger kick, double the amount. I will next time.

Add soy sauce and brown sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add fish sauce and tamarind concentrate, reduce heat to low and simmer for five minutes or until sauce thickens and is a dark caramel colour. I found it took no time at all to caramelise, but I think I had the stove up a little too high - it didn't seem to make a difference though. I still simmered it for the five minutes while I cooked the chicken.

Make three to four slashes in each chicken breast, about an inch apart so it depends on the size of your chicken breast, and season with salt and pepper.


Heat remaining oil in a frypan over medium-high heat. Add chicken, skin-side down, and cook for two to three minutes until golden brown. Turn and cook for two minutes on the other side, then turn skin-side down once more.

Reduce heat to medium-low, then add the sauce and cook chicken, basting, for a further five minutes or until cooked through. Serve with white rice and steamed pak choy, drizzled with the sauce.


Tip: Donna Hay (Modern Classics Book 1) taught me how to cook rice perfectly - To serve 4, put 1 1/2 cup long grain rice, 2 1/2 cups water in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Cook over a medium heat for 10-12 minutes, until funnels form in the rice and the liquid is absorbed. Set aside for 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork and serve. Ignore the instructions on the pack and follow these - you'll have perfect rice every time.


There you go, that's something by Kate.

Double Post Monday part 2! The Cookbook Challenge - Weeks 15 & 16

The weather has been frightful in Melbourne this weekend. You can see photos on The Age website here. Check out photo 37. There's a car under there. I saw it with about a foot to go. Funnily enough, I didn't end up going that way after all. 

Luckily we escaped with only minimal storm damage, unlike many other people as you can see from those photos. And the poor SES, they will have been working hard to help people, giving up their long weekend.

Well, this all meant perfect soup weather. Marie Claire's Kitchen produced a recipe for miso broth with somen noodles, shiitake and pumpkin.

 

Yep, more pumpkin - I don't know why I always have left over pumpkin...

Yet again, I didn't quite follow the recipe, and went with what I had in the pantry. instant soup mix, and soba noodles instead of somen. I think it still looks the same. And it tasted great!

Miso broth with somen noodles, shiitake and pumpkin

serves two

the cheat's (Kate's) version of Marie Claire's. 

3 dried shiitake mushrooms

2 sachets of instant miso soup

1 tablespoon soy sauce

150g pumpkin - 2 cm cubes

100 g soba noodles

2 spring onions sliced diagonally

Cover the mushrooms with 250ml hot water and soak for about half an hour. Remove, reserving the liquid, and finely slice the mushrooms.

Put the mushrooms, miso soup powder, soy sauce, pumpkin, reserved mushroom liquid and 500ml water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender. 

I love these asymmetrical bowls I picked up in Garrards. 

They're perfect for soup

Meanwhile, cook the soba noodles in rapidly boiling water for approximately four minutes, drain and divide among two bowls.

I was disappointed these cooked so quickly. I loved watching them swirling around the pot!

Spoon the soup over the noodles and sprinkle the spring onions over the top.

There you go, that's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 14 - Japanese - Japanese Eggplant Slices

Like most of the challenge participants, I don't have a Japanese cookbook either, and a few indexes of a few books didn't yield a lot of options. I turned to Stephanie Alexander's, The Cook's Companion, given it's claim of the "complete book". It didn't let me down, and produced a recipe for Japanese Eggplant Slices.

I prepared this for my lunch on Saturday, and didn't offer to share it as I was sure the offer would be greeted with a resounding "blech!". According to him, eggplant is not your friend. 

 Look how friendly they are!

I'm not convinced this can stand alone as a dish, however it would make a great starter, or part of a Japanese style buffet. 

The steps are basic, and the ingredients minimal - if I hadn't followed the direction to salt and stand the eggplant slices it would have been really quick too. The technique requires you to spread the flavoured chicken paste on to the eggplant and fry it in a pan - I was amazed, but it stayed put! I was paranoid about flipping it over and splashing it everywhere, so it ended up a little overcooked.

I'd probably put ginger and spring onions into the chicken paste next time I make it, as well as sprinkled over the top, just for a little added flavour - some garlic wouldn't go astray either - mmm, stinky garlic, my favourite. It was a teriyaki style flavour, but I like my teriyaki garlicky.

Here's a tip for fresh ginger - freeze the whole knob, skin on, and grate however much you need straight from the freezer. I find there's not even a need to peel it, provided you've washed it before you've frozen it. I never use a whole knob before they go rotten, so this means I always have fresh ginger, with no waste.

As far as quantities go for this, I used half of the amount of eggplant specified for the chicken listed, I think if you don't do this it will be fairly bland. I like eggplant as much as the next girl, but with such a small amount of chicken suggested per slice you'd really be wasting your time and might as well just fry plain eggplant.

I'll give you the quantities I used.

Japanese Eggplant Slices - The Cook's Companion, Stephanie Alexander

100g chicken mince
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin (or mirin seasoning)
salt
fresh ginger, grated for sprinkling
1 spring onion, finely sliced for sprinkling
olive oil for frying
1 eggplant, sliced into 2cm thick rounds

Score the eggplant on one side, twice in each direction. Sprinkle with salt and set aside for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the chicken, soy sauce and mirin in a food processor, until a paste forms, chicken breasts were on sale, so I threw in a whole breast, and minced it in the food processor. At this point I'd add in a chopped spring onion, some garlic and a bit of ginger.

At this point it doesn't look so delicious

Rinse and dry the eggplant rounds well.

 

Spread the chicken paste on the scored side of the eggplant, and fry, chicken side down, for about 3 minutes on medium heat in plenty of olive oil. Turn, and cook for a further 3 minutes on the other side. 

Serve sprinkled with grated ginger and chopped spring onion.

There you go. That's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 13 - Love - Molten Chocolate Puddings

Love is.... serving chocolate pudding just the way he likes it - to his desk while he plays Battlefield on the computer on Valentine's Day.

Love is.... serving it undercooked because that's the way he likes it, despite the fact it will photograph badly for the blog.

Love is.... making a recipe that's from a book I've already used for the cookbook challenge, and a recipe I've made before, because he "loves chocolate pudding even more than chocolate mousse" - this was a big call from someone who rarely orders dessert, but if he does it's chocolate mousse. 

I came across this recipe when I was making Spicy Chicken Thighs from Bill Granger's Every Day for Week 10 of the challenge.  

Love is.... having made this recipe five times since Week 10 of the challenge, and it's only Week 13 now.

Ok, you get the point. This is why I chose this recipe for our love theme. And I stuck a white chocolate heart on it for bonus points - but didn't serve him that one, since he doesn't like white chocolate. See how much I love him?

This is a simple, molten centred pudding that I haven't had fail yet. The first time I made it, following Bill's cooking time instructions (10 minutes) it was only just firm and held its shape, you could probably cook it for 10 1/2 - 11 minutes and still have a gooey middle, but I cook it for 9 1/2 to get it the way he likes it. I like it either way, but tend to leave mine in the oven for the 30 seconds it takes me to plate his up, just for a little more cake, and a little less batter. I also always wish I'd made enough for two each!

Here's one I prepared earlier - about 11 minutes in the oven - I also didn't have it on the middle shelf, and it was a little too close to the bottom element, as you can see from the "robust" colouring.

Molten Chocolate Puddings - Bill Granger's Every Day

Serves two 

(but doubles well, just use four ramekins as they won't cook well as two larger puddings)

50g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
50g dark chocolate, chopped
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon plain flour


Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Butter two 250ml ovenproof ramekins and dust with cocoa powder, shaking out any excess.


Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water or in the microwave on 50%. While the chocolate is melting use and electric whisk to beat the egg, yolk and sugar until pale and thick.

 Isn't that cute? I have no idea how the shadow is trying to create a heart, but it's very suitable for Valentine's Day

Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, sift in the flour and gently fold in. Spoon into the ramekins and bake for 10 minutes. Serve either in the ramekins or turned out onto serving plates.

There you go. That's something by Kate. Happy Valentine's Day!

Who Won? And - The Cookbook Challenge - Week 10 - Cool - Spicy Chicken Thighs with Cucumber and Cashew Salad

And the winners of the Bondi Chai giveaway are.....

Sarah from http://imasugarjunkie.wordpress.com/ with her suggestion of a vanilla honey chai cupcake, with honey buttercream icing, and Agnes from http://offthespork.blogspot.com/ who said she'd use the chai in a sweet baked ravoli with a chai & ricotta filling. Thanks guys, and congratulations. Email me your postal addresses to somethingbykate at gmail.com, and you'll soon have some Bondi Chai winging its way to you. I hope you'll make your suggestions soon, and post them on your blogs so everyone gets to see!

I really didn't have time to do ice-cream this week - or post on time, I'm so sorry!!!! As much as I have been desperate to make a strawberry balsamic ice cream, without an ice cream maker, and being back at work meant it just was not going to happen.

Cool, cool, cool??? Cucumbers! Cool as!

Without this week's challenge, I may never have gotten around to making Bill Granger's Spicy Chicken Thighs with Cucumber and Cashew Salad, and that would have been an absolute shame. This dish is awesome! Plate licking awesome, believe me, I saw Mr Something literally licking it clean. He also rarely comments on my cooking, unless he really doesn't want me to make something again, but two bites in, and compliments were flying. Definitely in the Repeat Recipe Rotation.

 I didn't follow Bill's recipe exactly, but I really think that's in the spirit of Bill! He's self-taught, and so casual, I think he wants people to just have a crack.

• I didn't have any fish sauce, so I substituted a couple of ground up anchovies and soy sauce.
• I didn't have any mint, so I used coriander - I think the coriander is a win, I won't be reverting to mint next time I make it.
• I only had whole cashews and was feeling lazy so didn't crush them - it wasn't necessary. 
• I used only a third of the amount of sugar that Bill recommended and it was still plenty sweet - it may be necessary to use more if you're using fish sauce and not soy, or love it sweet. 
• I used half the chicken and salad amount but the whole sauce amount - it was perfect.
• I went nuts with the lime juice.
  

The ingredients list below show Bill's quantities.

Spicy Chicken Thighs with Cucumber and Cashew Salad

3 tablespoons fish sauce

freshly ground black pepper

3 crushed garlic cloves

2 large red chilled, finely minced

2 teaspoons of sugar

8 boneless skinless chicken thighs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

3 tablespoons caster sugar

200g vermicelli noodles

2 cucumbers, halved and thinly sliced

1 handful of fresh mint leaves

4 spring onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons cashew nuts, crushed

My fish sauce substitute in the flavour shaker

Whisk the soy sauce, pepper, garlic, chillies and sugar in a bowl. Put the chicken in a separate bowl and pour over half the marinade, cover and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.

Fry the chicken in the vegetable oil over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes on high. Bill suggests putting another frypan on top to make the chicken crisp, I used a plate, and it worked quite well.

Trust me, there's chicken under there.

While the chicken cooks, add lime juice and sugar to the marinade that wasn't added to the chicken, and stir until the sugar had dissolved to make a dressing.

Pour boiling water over the vermicelli and leave it for a minute or two until soft, drain and rinse under cold water. Mix with the cucumber, coriander, spring onions, cashews and dressing in a large bowl. Serve with the sliced chicken.

Since I was juicing a lime, I also zested it, and put the zest in a zip lock back in the freezer.

How much do I love my new microplane?

Is anyone else as big a slob as I am, ending up with food all over their books?

There you go. That's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 9 - Berry - Berry and Yoghurt Muffins

It appears that baking is not my forte. While I love it, and the result is always edible, I seem singly unable to bake something that doesn't stick to the pan. Check out my brownies for an example. This occurred again this week, despite greasing the (non-stick my behind) pans as instructed. If anyone has any tips, I'd be eternally grateful! Even tips for getting stuck muffins out of the pans in as large a piece as possible would be well received!

That's as whole as it gets.

I started back at work this week after a wonderful break, and thought a muffin for breakfast would be a nice high energy kick-start to my working day. AWW Bake produced the Berry and Yogurt Muffins recipe, which with rolled oats, berries and yogurt, how much more breakfasty can a muffin get? Also, I still haven't replaced the mixer that I broke at Christmas, so a recipe that I only needed sifting and stirring was welcome. 

Unfortunately, these were so broken that it was far too embarrassing to share them at work, so they were hidden away for private consumption.

 This is what they're supposed to look like

Berry and yogurt muffins

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/3 cup rolled oats

3 eggs

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup yogurt

1/3 cup vegetable

180g fresh/frozen berries 

(I used fresh strawberries as they were STILL on sale at my supermarket - WIN!)

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Grease (and grease, and grease) your muffin pan.

Sift flour into a bowl, then add the remaining ingredients. Do not overmix.

Spoon into pan holes.

Bake muffins for about 25 minutes. Stand in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack, and turning top side up to cool.

Innocent little pools of muffin batter. They give no indication of the trouble they're about to cause.

Aren't muffins simple? Until you go to turn them out and they just won't budge. GRRRR.... and I tried so hard to make them look pretty, baking them with peach and apple fans, sprinkled with demerara sugar. I should have focused on keeping them whole!

It's still good, it's still good

These are very sweet, and you really can't tell that there's rolled oats in them. Also, strawberries don't seem to bake well. While very nice prior to cooking, they were somewhat bland in the muffins. I don't think I'd make these again, only if they were a specific request, or fit a theme particularly well, because I'm sure AWW Bake can produce much better options than these. It was a bit of a disappointing first outing for the book, but we'll see if we can't make a winner of it yet.

If anyone's getting stuck for what to cook for the challenge, or you just don't have the time to browse for a recipe, check out http://www.mycookbooksonline.com/. I can't remember where I came across this, I think Vicious Ange left a comment on someone else's blog, and I was hooked. Thanks Ange! There's a good sample of my cookbook shelf there, and I expect that as more people join, more books will be available to search.

There you go. That's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 8 - Sweet - Strawberry and Vanilla Conserve

Wow, week 8 of the cookbook challenge already. Can you believe it? And more food bloggers are still joining us. It's fantastic! Check out everyone who's participating over at Rilsta's blog.

I had no idea what I was going to make for this week's challenge, there were too many options, and I ended up making something that wasn't even on my shortlist at the start of the week. I received January's Australian Good Taste magazine in the mail on Wednesday, and when I got to page 21 I knew I'd found my recipe for the week. What's sweeter than jam?

This choice was made even easier by my local supermarket having a special on strawberries of $1.89/250g and the find I made on my first ever visit to Costco this week:

a 65g jar of Queen Vanilla Bean Paste is currently $10.88 at Coles ($16.74/100g), but this 320g baby set me back only $23.99 ($7.50/100g). Bargain! I also picked up AWW Bake for $44.95 which I've been coveting since Rilsta made the lemon white chocolate mudcake in week 1 of the cookbook challenge. Much cheaper than $100.95 at Borders, where I almost bought it last week!

Anyway, back to the challenge.

This was my first attempt at making jam (sorry, conserve) and it was so easy.

I halved the recipe, except for the vanilla, as I didn't really want 2 1/2 cups of conserve, although I kind of regret it now, and will have to make more soon. I'm consuming it much faster than I anticipated.

Strawberry and Vanilla Conserve

500g strawberries, washed and hulled (I also halved them, as I didn't want it too chunky)

500g caster sugar

40ml lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Strawberries have to be the most photogenic fruit!

Layer strawberries and sugar in a large bowl, cover, and allow to infuse overnight.

Transfer to a large saucepan with the lemon juice and vanilla. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to medium-high and bring to the boil. Skim any froth that forms on the surface using a large metal spoon.

Cook, stirring often, for 25-30 minutes. I cooked mine for 25 minutes, and I probably should have stopped at 20.

Check if it's ready by placing a saucer in the freezer for 5 minutes, then spoon a little conserve onto it and return it to the freezer for 2 minutes. Touch it, and if it wrinkles and feels gel-like it's ready.

You probably can't see it, but trust me, it's wrinkled.

Spoon the hot conserve into clean, dry, glass jars. I heated mine (gently, on 70 degrees) in the oven first, but this probably isn't necessary, I'm just paranoid about mixing high and low temperatures and glass. Seal jars and invert for 2 minutes. Turn right side up and leave to cool. I used old pasta sauce jars, and it was pretty awesome that when they cooled the safety seal button depressed! Ok, maybe that's lame, but I was excited to see it.

If you're going to leave your strawberries whole, make sure you use a wide mouthed jar. I used quite narrow jars, and even with the strawberries halved it was awkward to spoon the hot conserve into them.

Don't forget to enter your creative Chai recipe at last week's post, for your chance to win some Bondi Chai. You've got one more week to think about it!

There you go. That's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 7 - Soft - Lamb Shanks, Perfect Pannacotta and a Giveaway!

Sorry I'm late with my cookbook challenge this week. I lost my camera cable and couldn't post without pics. It was "tidied" and I've only just re-located it.

This week's challenge recipes are fresh from the first dinner with the in-laws in our new house. The meal received rave reviews, and both recipes are definitely going on the repeat recipe rotation. Australian Women's Weekly, what would we do without you?

I've been wanting to make Lamb Shanks in five-spice, tamarind and ginger from AWW 501 Low Carb Recipes for ages - it was the reason I bought the book in the first place, but 6 months later I still hadn't done it. The Cookbook Challenge's Soft theme is the perfect week for melt in your mouth, falling off the bone, slow cooked lamb shanks. It takes a while in the oven, but is really simple.

I also needed to produce a dessert that was light and fresh, and able to tone down the chilli flavours from the lamb, while still holding it's own in flavour. You may remember that Martin from Bondi Chai sent me some of their product to have a play with (and giveaway, so make sure you read to the end!), and I thought the Vanilla Honey Chai would be a perfect pannacotta flavouring, so I combined it with this week's Soft theme, pulling out 1000 Best Ever Recipes from AWW which was a much appreciated Christmas gift.

I'll post these recipes in the order I served them, rather than the order I made them.

Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto

Self explanatory really. Steam your asparagus sparingly - no more than 5 minutes.

Lamb shanks in five-spice, tamarind and ginger

2 tsp five-spice powder

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Chinese rice wine (I couldn't get any, and used dry sherry)

2 tbsp tamarind puree

2 tbsp brown sugar

40g grated ginger (I was desperate to use my new microplane that I got for Christmas, but the supermarket was out of fresh ginger, so I used the tube stuff)

2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups water

8 (1.6kg) french trimmed lamb shanks (AWW says this serves 4, but take into account who you're serving - I served 6 shanks to 2 gentlemen and 2 ladies and it was perfect)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine soy sauce, rice wine, tamarind, sugar, ginger, garlic and water in a medium jug.

Dry-fry five-spice, chilli, cinnamon and star anise, stirring constantly until fragrant.

Add spices to the jug of liquids, and whisk to combine.

Place shanks in a large shallow baking dish (preferably with a lid) in a single layer and pour the spice mixture on.

Cover and bake for 2 hours, turning occasionally (I did it every 1/2 hour).

Once cooked, remove shanks from dish and cover to keep warm. Strain remaining sauce into a small saucepan and boil, then pour over lamb and vegetables of your choice.

I served mine with mashed potato (not in the spirit of the low-carb recipe) and steamed choy sum and broccolini.

Vanilla Honey Chai Pannacotta

300ml thickened cream

250ml milk

1 vanilla bean (I substituted this for 8 teaspoons of Bondi Chai Vanilla Honey Creamy Tea Latte Powder)

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons gelatine powder

1 strip lemon rind (trust me, it's better with 2!)

Stir all the ingredients in a pan over low heat until warm.

Stand until cool.

Strain mixture through a fine strainer into medium jug, and pour into 4 1/2 cup moulds, or martini glasses. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Turn pannacotta from moulds onto serving plates, or leave in glasses.

I served mine with a rosewater strawberry syrup, made by boiling 1/4 cup caster sugar with 1/2 punnet chopped strawberries, 1/4 cup water and a few drops of rosewater essence.

And I promised a giveaway!

While my pannacotta was absolutely delicious, and was eaten even by the person who at first responded to it with cries of "why isn't this chocolate mousse?!?" I haven't been overly creative with my use of the Bondi Chai powder.  I bet you can do better! I have 1 Club Cinnamon Bondi Chai, and 1 Vanilla Honey Bondi Chai to give away courtesy of Martin from Bondi Chai.

Leave me a comment telling me how you would use Bondi Chai powder in your cooking, and the 2 most creative ways will win a packet to create their vision. Whilst I welcome comments from international visitors, I can only post these prizes within Australia, and I will make the final decision based on comments received before 18th January 2010.  You may want to check out the Bondi Chai website for some inspiration, or try their Facebook page.

There you go. That's something by Kate.