Chicken chorizo salad

I was reading The Guardian's review (here) of Bill Granger's new London restaurant, and there was some snarky feedback about the fact that Bill is not really a 'chef', but rather, a savvy cafe operator and arranger of food (in that case, I'd like to hear their comments on Donna Hay...)  But is there anything wrong with simple, fresh food served in pleasant surroundings? No, nothing wrong at all.

And here's another non-chef - Nigella Lawson. The lack of cheffing skills certainly hasn't hurt her reputation, either. Regardless of the number of fancy cookbooks I own (heaps), it's always the ones that are not too complex that I end up cooking from, and Nigella's are at the top of the pile (together with DH and BG). The throwing-together of ingredients for this chicken and chorizo salad was inspired by something on the Nigella Kitchen tv show. I substituted croutons for the original potato to make it even easier. It's tasty and quick and I love it.

Chicken and Chorizo Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 small chicken thigh fillets, trimmed of fat

1 chorizo sausage, sliced

1 small red onion, cut into chunks

½ red or yellow capsicum, deseeded, cut into chunks

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks OR a handful or two of bread croutons

1 tblsp olive oil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ cos (romaine) lettuce, trimmed, leaves separated

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

2. Place the chicken, chorizo, onion, capsicum and potatoes, if using, into a baking tray that is large enough to hold everything in a single layer. Pour over the olive oil, then sprinkle with the dried oregano. Cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are soft.

3. If you are using croutons instead of potatoes, put the croutons into the baking tray for the last 10 minutes of the cooking time.

4. To serve: Divide the cos lettuce leaves between 2 plates, then top with the baked chicken, chorizo and vegetables.

Put the chicken thigh fillets in a roasting pan with the chorizo, onion and capsicum, and roast.

Add the croutons towards the end of the cooking time.

Serve on cos lettuce leaves with the oil from the baking tray drizzled over.

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Another in a series: What Cat is That?*

(or, What is wrong with this picture?**)

* It's evil Henry

** What's wrong is that Tabitha can't go into the backyard when Henry's around because she'll hiss at him and then he tries to scratch her

Vietnamese chicken pork liver pâté and a bad cat

A couple of weeks ago, the Sydney Morning Herald had available some free downloads of extracts from recent cookbooks. I had good intentions of downloading them all, but in the end only managed to get a couple. One of them was the Hanoi chapter from Luke Nguyen’s Indochine book.

Indochine is more than a cookbook; it’s more of a memoir and travel journal of life in Vietnam, intermixed with life stories of the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine. I’ve only read this Hanoi section and it’s very entertaining.

This recipe for chicken and pork liver pâté is also interesting, and I wanted to try it to compare to my benchmark go-to version of chicken liver pâté. This one uses pork liver and pork mince as well, and it gives the pâté a very liver-y flavour, so you’d have to like liver to like it, I think. I prefer the chicken liver-only version, but this one would probably be better in a bánh mi with some pickled carrot, pork belly and (evil) coriander.

Chicken and Pork Liver Pâté

Serves 6

Ingredients

200g (7oz) pork livers

200g (7oz) chicken livers

100g (3 ½ oz) butter, softened

100g (3 ½ oz) minced pork

2 French shallots, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tblsp brandy, Cognac or Grand Marnier

4 tblsp pouring cream

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

½ tsp white pepper

Method

1. Clean the livers of fat and sinew. Cut the livers to be the same size, about half the size of a chicken liver. Wash under cold, running water, then dry well with paper towels.

2. Melt 2 teaspoons of butter in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the livers and fry for 2-3 minutes, until brown on the outside but still pink on the inside. Remove from the pan to a plate.

3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and the pork mince to the pan and cook through, about 2 minutes (do not brown the meat). Remove pork from the pan and place with the livers.

4. Wipe the pan clean, then add 2 teaspoons of butter and fry the shallots and garlic for 5 minutes, until the onion is lightly caramelised. Increase the heat and return the lives and pork to the pan. Pour in the brandy/Cognac and ignite the alcohol, or allow the alcohol to bubble away for 1-2 minutes.

5. Place the liver mixture, together with the remaining butter and cream, into a food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon into clean ramekins and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Serve at room temperature with fresh baguettes.

recipe adapted from Indochine: Hanoi by Luke Nguyen

Ingredients, including chopped shallots, butter and chicken and pork livers and a splash of Grand Marnier.

The resultant pâté resembles cat food, which is why Tabitha cat perked up when she saw it.

And that's a wooden piggy chopping board that I got for my birthday.

Take the pâté out of the fridge about 30 minutes before eating, to soften it up a bit.

It's pretty good with some crusty bread.

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I'll finish off with a picture of a bad cat. That's Henry, a neighbouring Burmese. Henry has been flocking around for the past few weeks, stalking Tabitha by eating her cat grass and catnip, lying in her favourite spots (on the warm pavers and on the wall), scratching up the back doormat (there were clumps of coir all over the yard and the mat had to be binned). Oh, and he murdered my goldfish (Spot) by scooping him out of the pond and leaving him on the ground in the sun. Evil Henry. You'll get what's coming to you, buddy.

PS: The glass on the doors has been cleaned since this picture was taken.

All the better to see Henry with...

Resolute zucchini and pomegranate

Here we are in a new year!

I'm not usually one for resolutions, but I believe the old chestnut, "Eat healthier" is traditionally trotted out, so that will be my resolution this year. Oh, and "Buy less stuff" should be added to the list as well, because I purchase so many unnecessary things, it's affecting my well-being (no room to move in the house and guilty conscience about the carbon footprint) - so fewer  magazines, scrapbooking supplies and online dresses and handbags for me this year.

To help things along, here's a relatively healthy dish. You are supposed to shallow-fry the zucchini, but in the interests of good-for-you-ness, it's probably okay to reduce the oil.

PS: Does anyone have experience with salicylate sensitivity? I'm doing a bit of self-diagnosis and salicylates are next on my list of things that might be affecting me.

Fried zucchini with balsamic dressing

serves 4

Ingredients

3-4 tblsp olive oil (for shallow frying)

4 medium zucchini, quartered

1/2 pomegranate, seeds removed

Balsamic dressing

1 tblsp balsamic vinegar

juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tblsp honey

1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes

Method

1. Heat the oil in a non-stick frypan over medium heat. Add the zucchini and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown. When cooked, remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain.

2. For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk the dressing ingredients until combined.

3. To serve: Arrange the zucchini on a plate, season with salt and pepper and pour over some of the dressing. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds before serving.

recipe adapted from delicious (Nov 2011)

Ingredients, including festive pomegranate and year-round zucchini.

To easily remove the seeds from the pomegranate, use the 'whack a pom' method.

The dressing just needs to be whisked together.

Serve the pomegranate seeds on the fried zucchini for a bright-tasting combination

PPS: Check out my Sydney fireworks photos on my Craft blog, here

Season's Greetings and happy New Year

Thank you for joining us at Ooh, Look...

on a food, restaurant and eating journey this year.

Have a wonderful holiday season and see you in 2012.

Tabitha cat does a little Mexican hat dance to celebrate.

mini lemon meringue pies a la Tea Salon

Has anyone ever asked you, "Do you prefer sweet or savoury?". Well, no one has ever asked me, but it's a hypothetical question I occasionally think about. After much deliberation, I think I prefer savoury/salty because it's so much easier to over-indulge in the sweet stuff, and I have zero will-power. Which is why I try not to make too many desserts here at Ooh, Look... except for now!

As if we will not be getting enough sugar at Christmas (bring it on!), I thought I'd try this delightful, quick dessert from the equally delightful Stonesoup blog.  While it took me a bit longer than the suggested 15 minutes to make these little lemon meringue pies, they were more than worth it for the amazing, tangy lemon 'cream' under a fluffy pillow of soft, lightly toasted meringue.

Oh, and to finish off, here's another question: Have you ever seen a bloke having high tea at a Tea Salon? I'm thinking of a particular place (the Victoria Room Tea Salon at Westfield Sydney) that is 'artfully framed by a curved picket fence and cheery blooms, [a] whimsical English-inspired tea salon', according to its website. Every time I pass by, it's full of ladies enjoying dainty sandwiches and scones and cups of tea. I've yet to spot any blokes there. But if they serve cuties like these, then I'm sure there would be a long queue of guys waiting to sink their fangs into a mini lemon meringue pie.

Lemon meringue pies

makes 8

Ingredients

100g (3 1/2oz) shortbread biscuits (about 6 Arnott's Scotch Fingers)

3 eggs, separated

1 can  (400g/14oz) sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

55g (2oz) caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C/340F. Line 8 holes of a muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Finely crush the biscuits in a food processor or with a rolling pin. Press the crumbs into the base of the muffin cases.

3. Combine the egg yolks, condensed milk, lemon juice and zest in a bowl and mix well.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Then gradually sprinkle in the caster sugar and continue to beat for a few more minutes until the sugar is dissolved.

5. Pour the lemon filling on top of the crumb bases

6. Spoon the eggwhites on top of the lemon filling.

7. Bake for 10 minutes or until the meringue is golden. Cool before serving.

Store in an airtight container (not in the refrigerator) for up to 2 days.

recipe adapted from thestonesoup.com

Some of the ingredients, including lemons, condensed milk, eggs and Scotch Finger biscuits.

Smash up the bikkies and press into muffin cases. To make the crumbs stick together more, you could mix in a couple of tablespoons of melted butter before pressing into the cases.

Amazingly, condensed milk plus egg yolks plus lemon produces a delicious lemon curd.

Whip up the eggwhites and dollop onto the lemon filling.

Golden brown from the oven.

My oven is super-hot, so to stop them browning too quickly, I turned the oven off after 5 minutes and left the pies in the oven for the remaining 5 mins, to firm up the filling.

Very pretty pies, worthy of a tea salon

If you like, serve with fresh raspberries to counteract the sweetness

A perfectly cute dessert

Heirloom tomatoes are worth inheriting

While dodging the almost unbearable Christmas shopping crowds on Saturday, I popped into the Westfield Sydney food court for some sustenance in the form of parmesan truffle fries from Charlie and Co - with extra cheese, pleese!

Then strolling over to the Quarter 21 shop afterwards, I noticed they were having a 'farm gate' event with trestles set up and produce from suppliers for sale. It was a bit unsettling, given that it's held inside a glossy shopping centre rather than, er, at a farm gate, but the quality of the fruits, vegetables, cheese, jams and oils on display were of the highest quality.

I picked up a punnet of baby heirloom tomatoes from the stall, and some lamb shanks from inside the Q21 shop.

Beautiful, jewel-like baby tomatoes

A salad of heirloom tomatoes, simply dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

The yellow tomatoes were the sweetest, although they were all juicy and luscious.

The lamb shanks are anointed with olive oil and thyme, and come vacuum-wrapped in plastic, and were the most fragrant things ever! I don't know how they can get so much flavour with just oil and thyme. Anyway, the shanks were roasted for 45 minutes and served with the tomato salad and some rocket leaves. Delicious.

tofu mushroom soba noodles for the optimistic

Look out, the end of the year is racing up to slap us in the face, yelling “Hey, what have you been doing all year? 2011 is almost over, and what have you got to show for it, eh?”.

Well, not wanting 2011 to get the better of me, I’ve been trying – somewhat unsuccessfully – to fit more into each day, and that includes eating a decent breakfast, feeling more inspired about work, working smarter not longer, not skipping lunch, going to the gym, leaving work at a reasonable hour, preparing simpler, healthy meals, not watching too much television, reading more, and going to bed earlier.

Two out of ten ain’t bad, is it???

This is an example of the ‘simpler healthy meals’ ethic. So simple that even a hungry, time-poor, gym-avoiding, avid reading blogger can enjoy it. And she does.

Soba noodles with mushrooms and tofu

serves 2

Ingredients

4 medium dried shiitake mushrooms

180g dried soba noodles

2 tblsp oyster sauce

1 tblsp light soy sauce

100g silken soft tofu

1 small long red chilli, sliced

½ tsp sesame oil

2 green onions, sliced

Method

1. Soak the mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for 20 minutes, then drain and slice.

2. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add soba noodles. Cook for 4 minutes, then drain the noodles, rinse with cold water and drain again. Set aside.

3. While the noodles are boiling, heat a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat. Mix together the oyster sauce and soy sauce and add to the wok. Gently add the tofu, mushrooms and chilli and simmer for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil and heat for another 1 minute.

4. Place the soba noodles in serving bowls then top with the tofu and mushrooms in the sauce. Top with sliced green onions to serve.

Ingredients, including reconstituted shiitake mushrooms, silken tofu, chilli, green onions and soba noodles

The longer you simmer the tofu in the sauce, the tastier it should become.

Then just spoon it into a bowl and dig in.

This is an excellent dish for devouring while reflecting on the productive day you've had and looking forward to the next one.