Fingerfood

Salmon Mousse

Salmon Mousse

This is definitely the best salmon mousse recipe ever. It is from Beverley Sutherland Smith’s wonderful old (1975) book, ‘A Taste for All Seasons’.

2 x 220g tins of best quality red or pink salmon
1 tablespoon gelatine
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon mustard powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon horseradish cream
1 tablespoon home-made mayonnaise
1 cup finely diced celery
2 teaspoons chopped capers
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
2 tablespoons finely chopped bread and butter cucumbers
½ cup cream, lightly whipped
Drain the salmon and reserve liquid. Remove any bones and dark skin.

Mash, or put the salmon into a food processor for a few seconds and process until it is well broken up. If a food processor is used, a little of the reserved liquid may be added so that the salmon is not too dry.

Add gelatine to water, (not the other way around) and stir to dissolve the gelatine over hot water. Mix the dissolved gelatine with sugar, mustard powder, salt, horseradish cream and mayonnaise and stir this into the salmon. Add the celery, capers, green onions and bread and butter cucumbers. Lastly fold in the whipped cream. Put into a lightly oiled mould to set.

Cover and refrigerate. Mousse will keep well for several days.

Serve with cucumber salad.

 Photo by: http://lindaraxa.blogspot.com.au

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Cakes

Chickpea and sweet potato cakes

Sarah and I recently took Milly for a bite to eat at the Lido in Racecourse Road. I was absolutely starving so I ordered their tapas plate. (Ever hopeful!) Sarah followed suit and we both ended up with enormous platters of food which we couldn’t possibly hope to finish. The best were the chick pea and sweet potato (kumera) cakes that were absolutely delicious. Needless to say I bought sweet potatoes and chick peas to experiment the next day and while my experiments were cooking I began leafing through the current edition of Australian Gourmet Traveller. There, on page 54 was a recipe for Chickpea and Sweet Potato Cakes with Green Bean and Mint Salad. Coincidences I believe in, but that was just ridiculous!

Mine was nearly right.

800g orange sweet potato (kumera), cut into boiling size chunks
400g canned chickpeas, well drained
35g (¼ cup) plain flour
1½ teaspoons ground cumin
1½ teaspoons ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive or grapeseed oil for frying

Cook the sweet potato in boiling salted water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain well. Using a potato masher or ricer, mash until smooth. Add the chickpeas, flour and spices and mix together well. Mould dessertspoons of the potato mixture into rounds and place on a tray.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy based frying pan over medium heat and cook the cakes (flattening them a little with a spatula) for 3 minutes on either side or until golden. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Serve with natural Greek yoghurt or tzatziki or raita to dip.

Serves 4.

 Photo by: self.com

San choy bow

My original recipe for San Choy Bow made with pork mince was typed out on a scatty bit of paper and given to me by Mr.Bradfield, that scandalously expensive butcher at Oriel Park. I have no idea why he gave it to me, since I bought meat from him very rarely.  The scatty bit of paper has long since disappeared and of course, we have all since realised that San Choy Bow should be made, not with pork mince, but with cooked duck meat as part of Peking Duck.

So pork San Choy Bow is probably not authentic, (although the Thais do have a similar recipe also made with pork and served wrapped in lettuce leaves, called Issan Ground Pork.) Nevertheless San Choy Bow is a welcome relief from the boredom of normal meals. Kids, if ever any of you remember to have any, think that eating their meal out of  a lettuce leaf is just great. San Choy Bow is just as good made with chicken mince or finely chopped duck meat.

1 kg pork mince
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 good knob of peeled fresh ginger, crushed or grated
Oil for cooking
4 – 6 green onions, finely chopped
1 small tin of water chestnuts,
2 – 3 small red chillies, seeded and finely chopped
250ml (approximately) chicken stock
2 tablespoons shaoshing rice wine
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon cornflour dissolved in ½ cup of water or chicken stock. to thicken

Fresh young lettuce leaves, preferably iceberg,  to serve.

To separate the lettuce leaves so they don’t tear, use a knife and remove the stalk of the lettuce and run cold water into the lettuce for a minute. Soak the lettuce in cold water for an hour, then drain, cover and chill until ready to serve. This will ensure its texture remains crisp.

Heat oil in a wok, add garlic and ginger and cook to release the flavours. Remove garlic and ginger with a slotted spoon. Add minced pork to the oil and cook, stirring until all the mince has changed colour and has broken up. Add green onions, water chestnuts and chilli stir through.

Add chicken stock and cook, uncovered until pork is cooked. Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and shaoshing wine and stir well to combine. Allow the mixture to reduce and thicken a little if necessary.

Give the cornflour mixture a big stir and add.  Stir in well. Toss and stir the pork until
cornflour has glazed all of the pork and the mixture has thickened.

Transfer to a serving dish with another platter containing fresh young lettuce leaves.

Guests take a lettuce leaf, place a spoonful of San Choy Bow, in the leaf, wrap it and eat it as finger food.

Serves 4.

Thai fish cakes

Unfortunately, opportunities for cooking these delicious fish cakes do not happen often, good reef fish being the price it is. When Dad and I went up to the Bunkers with Nikki and Bruce Phillips on the old ‘Arbitrage’, I went prepared (even though Bruce drew the line at my wok.) My chance came one day when we caught nothing but Red Hussars, a good eating fish with very little keeping ability. Red Hussars do not freeze well, so it is a matter of eat now, or use for bait. When I announced that I was making Red Hussar Thai fish cakes for lunch, I was banished from the galley and told to prepare them on the bait board. So I did. Nobody objected to eating them, though.

250g white fish fillets
½ cup snake or green beans, roughly sliced
1 coriander plant, leaves, stems and roots, finely chopped
1 stalk of lemon grass, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 small red chillies, seeded and very finely chopped
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
Oil for frying

Remove any skin and bones from the fish and cut into pieces. Place in a bowl of a food processor with all of the remaining ingredients, except the oil for frying. Process for 30 seconds or until just mixed. Do not over-mix. Refrigerate mixture for at least an hour or until cold.

With damp hands, shape the mixture into patties, approximately 5cm in diameter. Heat oil in a wok or deep frying pan and fry the fish cakes, a few at a time, until crisp and golden brown, turning once. Drain on absorbent paper and keep hot in a very slow oven (120C) while cooking the remainder. Serve with Cucumber Salad.

CUCUMBER SALAD

1 medium cucumber
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 –3 small red chillies, seeded and very finely chopped
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup hot water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Chopped coriander to garnish

Quarter the cucumber lengthways and using a small spoon, scoop out the seeds from each quarter. Slice finely with skin on. Place sliced cucumber in a bowl with the shallots and chillies. Mix together the sugar and hot water add the vinegar and fish sauce and pour over the cucumber mixture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Haloumi and zucchini fritters

I have made these for several art show openings and they have become a staple. They are always enormously popular, along with Turkish meatballs, crab and pork balls, and, of course, baked ricotta cake. (All, you will notice, can be made well in advance.) I feel that the zucchini fritters do need the aoili, though.

300g (about 6 – 8) zucchini
1 onion, grated
250g haloumi cheese, grated
75g (½ cup) plain flour
2 teaspoons zested lemon rind
2 eggs
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Light olive oil, to fry
Aioli, to serve (see Sauces)

Coarsely grate the zucchinis, then squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Place in a bowl and add the onion, haloumi cheese, flour, lemon zest, eggs and dill. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and stir to combine. Shape the zucchini mixture into about 25 bite size patties. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes until firm.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat and fry, in batches, for 1 – 2 minutes each side until golden. Drain on a paper towel.

Just before serving, place the fritters on a baking tray and warm in a pre-heated moderate oven.

Serve with aioli to dip.

Makes about 25.

Peking duck pancakes

True Peking duck pancakes are, of course the first part of three that are served when you order Peking duck at an Australian restaurant. (In China, I understand, the skin is cut from the duck, and the meat removed from the bones and cut into small rectangles. These are then arranged on a serving platter, between the legs and the wings to create a symbolic whole duck. The bones are then made into duck soup. Pieces of meat as well as skin can be rolled into Chinese pancakes much as they are served here.)

We make Peking duck pancakes at home really only when we intend to make a red duck curry from the meat of a barbecued duck bought from Chinatown, because the skin is not required for red duck curry. Given what you pay in a restaurant for this as a starter, it’s such a waste not to do it for guests.

If I were intending to serve duck pancakes as finger food for a party, I would probably use tiny savoury pancakes instead of the true steamed Chinese ones, and might top the pancakes with duck meat, rather than duck skin, and slivers of fruit, or with plum sauce instead of the traditional hoisin sauce.

1 barbecued duck from Chinatown
1 packet Chinese pancakes from Chinese barbecue in Chinatown
1 bunch green onions
Hoisin sauce

Firstly, prepare the green onions. These can be simply be cut into strips, or they can be “frilled”. To do this, cut the white part of the green onion into approximately 4cm lengths, then with a sharp knife, cut 1.5cm deep slits all around both ends of the green onion, leaving about 1 cm of solid green onion in the centre. Place them in a bowl of iced water and leave them in the refrigerator for about an hour. The ends will curl and stiffen making balls of green-white ‘frills’.

We have recently discovered that re-heating the duck helps to separate the skin from the meat and also helps to re-crisp the skin. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees and wrap the duck in al-foil. Reheat in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and using a flexible knife, cut the skin away from the duck. Don’t pull it as it will tear. The skin should have some meat attached.

Heat the pancakes by folding them in half and placing the folded pancakes onto a plate and steaming them in a traditional Chinese bamboo steamer, or by placing them in a microwave steamer (with water) for about two minutes.

To serve, smear a pancake with hoisin sauce. Place a piece of duck skin onto the pancake, top   with a green onion strip or frill, roll up and serve.

Cheese Biscuits #1

Cheese biscuits neverendingcookbook

I think a little cheese biscuit with a drink when ones’ guests arrive is a perfect way to begin any party. The Moreton Club has done these tiny biscuits for years and whilst I believe that the recipe is available I do not know anybody who actually has it.

I am enormously proud of this recipe because it is the result of a lot of hard work and much experimentation. I think my recipe is a little better than the Moreton Club’s. Lately it is my most requested recipe, which does say something!

This recipe has the added advantage of having equal quantities of butter, flour and cheese which makes it very easy to remember, and very easy to make in smaller or larger quantities.  When I began experimenting with these biscuits, the flour was all plain flour. Then it became plain flour with a little rice flour added, then plain flour with a little ground rice. Now I make them with equal quantities of plain flour and ground rice. This gives the biscuits a very satisfying crunch.

250g butter
250g imported Parmesan cheese, finely grated
125g plain flour
125g ground rice (or substitute rice flour)
Cayenne pepper

Sift together the plain flour, cayenne pepper and ground rice or rice flour. Cut butter into small cubes and place in the bowl of a food processor. Add sifted flour/s and cayenne and the finely grated Parmesan. Process until the mixture forms a ball around the shaft of the food processor. Remove biscuit dough from food processor and wrap in plastic film. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 120C.

Grease a baking sheet or baking tray with butter and, using hands, roll biscuit dough into balls approximately 1 cm in diameter. Place on the baking tray and press balls with a fork to flatten and decorate.

Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are lightly coloured. As soon as you can smell the cheese in the biscuits they are almost done.

Cool on a wire rack until completely cold, then store in an airtight container into which some kitchen paper has been placed. If biscuits are not needed for a week or two, seal the airtight container with tape.

To serve, reheat at very low temperature on baking sheet until biscuits are warm but not hot.