A Celebration of Asian Food with a Retro Kikkoman Noodle Dish

In the U.S it is is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and the lovely Linda Shiue of Spice Box Travels has suggested we celebrate Asian food this (#Lets)Lunch time.

I’m the first to admit I am not much of an Asian food cook, but I LOVE to eat it. Occasionally I stumble across a recipe that works for me. I’m not sure if I should say ‘embarrassingly’ or rather just ‘ironically’, but this recipe comes from a Kikkoman ad in a magazine…about 20 years ago. I think it must have been my first foray into ‘Asian’ cooking. After carefully copying it into my recipe journal it became a staple part of our Sunday lunch menu and it was an immediate hit. Although I really can’t understand why it is called “Chinese..,” when the flavours are really so Japanese! It is so simple, yet truly delicious.

I bet if you asked anyone who came to our place for lunch in the 90s, they would remember this dish. I am so thrilled to have rediscovered it after searching through my messy and huge unfiled recipe file. It’s been a while. But guess what’s back on the menu now?

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the world. Anyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check back in a couple of days for a list of everyone’s #letslunch post right here.

A Plumb Cake from the Old World

A brown box is on your doorstep. Something smells good. You peek inside. You see a crumble-topped cake bursting with red plums. Four words are on a small card. I love you Mum.

I can’t think of a better way to show love than to bake. To cream butter and sugar. To sift flour. To whisk eggs. To roll dough.

It’s not about what you are making, it is about showing someone that you are grateful. You can write a heartfelt note or pick up a bunch of flowers. You can also take a few minutes to choose a recipe and to buy the ingredients. And use your most precious resource – time – to produce a cellophaned and ribboned bag of home baked goodness.

In our kitchen,we would choose something from the Monday Morning Cooking Club book. An airy chocolate chiffon cake, a slab of pumpkin seed brittle or a jar of nana’s nuts, almonds roasted golden with sugar. But at this time of year we love making use of the last of the season’s plums. What better way to use them than in a delicious cake for mother’s day?

This plumb cake has a heartfelt story. It comes from my good friend Lyndi, who got the recipe from her mother, who brought the recipe with her to Australia from her mother and home country, Czechoslovakia. For Lyndi, It was always written as ‘plumb’ cake, and it wasn’t until she was well into her teenage years that she realised her mother had spelled it incorrectly. It is now fondly remembered by all of us as ‘plumb’ cake.

Inspired by Israel and Created in Australia – Salmon and Beetroot with Horseradish

I couldn’t be happier with the #LetsLunch topic for this month’s post: ”Spring Break: foods from places you are going, have gone or wish you were going.”

It wasn’t quite a ‘Spring break’ for me, but I have just returned from an amazing trip to Israel where I found the food culture  in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem absolutely inspiring and so so wonderful. Every restaurant and cafe I visited had at least one dish that was a true highlight – memorable and worth revisiting.  I often had my notebook out, scribbling down ingredients and recipe ideas. The usuals and the unusuals. Creamy labne, fresh green almonds, tiny baby calamari, chickpeas a million ways, tahina straight from the vat, Romanian kebabs (meatballs), Kosher-for-Pesach laffa, hummus many ways, barley salad, brinza cheese, parsley and coriander galore, toasted pine nuts, roasted spices, sweet tomatoes, Indian-style ‘pizza’ with truffles, flaky druze pita…so many great things.

One of my favourites is North Abraxus in Tel Aviv. The restaurant is small, so book ahead. The food is innovative yet simple, with presentation that makes you smile. I have a wonderful beetroot and horseradish starter which is basically a pool of horseradish cream (yoghurt? labne? didn’t ask!) with beetroots sitting atop. It is so irresistible and delicious that I only remember to take a picture when it is almost too late. Apologies for the average pic but I am too busy scoffing it down. Once you start to eat it, the cream begins to turn pink and looks like coloured paint on an artist’s palette.

The whole meal at North Abraxus is fabulous but more on that in my Israel post (coming soon).

On returning to Sydney, I have the lingering memory (actually more like a craving!) of beetroots and horseradish and I decide to make lunch around it. It’s pretty simple really – salmon on the BBQ, roasted beetroot and horseradish yoghurt. Perhaps the next version might have some greens and maybe some nuts, but the first draft will do for now.

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the world. Anyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check back in a couple of days for a list of everyone’s #letslunch post right here.

Emma’s  Mickey Pizza at Kitchen Dreamer

Jill’s Basil-Infused Cotillion Cocktail at Eating My Words
Lucy’s Pepperoni Pizza Swirl Muffins at A Cook and Her Books
Lisa’s Beetroot and Salmon with Horseradish at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Linda’s Instant Carrot Cake at Free Range Cookies
Karen’s Sourdough Sandwich Bread at Geofooding
Linda’s Guide to Eating in Cancun at Spicebox Travels
Ann Marie’s Mofongo with Ground Beef at Sandwich Surprise

Hop Into This Chocolate Easter Indulgence

It’s that time of year when our minds wander, over and over, to chocolate. Some of us buy and devour blocks of it, some of us indulge in our favourite Easter eggs, and some of us think, “yay, another chocolate cake to bake!”

So here’s our favourite chocolate cake recipe, primped and preened to majestically entertain at Easter time.

You will need two cakes, and a double batch of chocolate buttercream or ganache (recipes below) plus a bag of pastel candy coated Easter eggs. We found our eggs at Sydney’s Perfection chocolate shop. Once the cakes have been baked and cooled, slice each one crossways in half. Stack the cake halves together using the buttercream or ganache. Coat the stacked cake in buttercream or ganache. Decorate with the easter eggs. Beautiful!

Thanks to David Morgan for styling our cake so beautifully, and to Alan Benson for the fabulous shots.

GANACHE ICING:

1 cup pouring cream

350 g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

20g butter

Heat the cream until it comes to the boil. Remove immediately from heat. Pour cream over chopped chocolate and butter and stir until mixture is combined and smooth. Place ganache in the refrigerator for around 45 min to thicken and then spread over cake.

BUTTERCREAM ICING: (Thanks to Savoury Sweet Life for the recipe)

250 g  unsalted butter, softened

480 g  icing (confectioners) sugar

60 g (½ cup) cocoa powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

80 ml (4 tablespoons) milk

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the K beater attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 400 g of the sugar and the cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed  until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase to medium and add vanilla, salt, and milk and beat for 3 minutes. If your icing to be stiffer, add a little more sugar. If it needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Menu Ideas for the Festive Passover Season. Part 2.

Are you full yet? Sick of matzo? Here are some new ideas to help you through the eight days of Pesach. We hope you enjoyed our recipes from Part 1, and if you had a Seder, it was a huge success. We would love to hear all about it from you! Here are some ideas from our book that will help get you through the week, as well as a couple of great ‘essential Pesach’ recipes.

Weeknight dinner ideas for Pesach:

Carole’s Roast Beef (page 229)

Gaz’s Baby Peri Peri Chickens (page 130)

Marny’s Roasted Baby Potato Salad with capers (page 217)  (substitute regular for white balsamic if you can’t find it)

Barbara’s Blood Orange Compote (page 239)

Felicia’s Chocolate Almond Florentines  (page 140)

Zina’s Nana’s Nuts  (page 164)

Lunch menu for Pesach

Manya’s Booby’s Traditional Cold Borscht  (page 24)

Lisa’s Egg and Onion (page 78) (SEE RECIPE BELOW)

Judy’s Gravalax   (page 176)

Sharon’s Buba’s Eggplant  (page 71)

Gretta Anna’s Baked Custard with Crushed Strawberries (page 246)

Talia’s Buche de Chocolat  (page 255) (RECIPE BELOW)

RECIPE FOR EGG AND ONION

• 4 brown onions, chopped
• 185 ml (3/4 cup) vegetable oil
• 12 eggs

Put the onions and oil in a large frying pan and fry for about 20 minutes on a medium to high heat, until golden brown and very soft. Meanwhile, boil the eggs for 8 minutes until hard-boiled. Remove the pan from the heat, drain and then cover the eggs with cold water. When just cool enough to handle, peel the eggs and grate into a large bowl using the coarse side of a grater.

Spoon the onions onto the egg, leaving most of the oil in the pan. You may need this oil so don’t discard yet. Season generously with salt and pepper, and combine the onions and egg with your hands or a wooden spoon, tasting as you go. If too dry, add a little oil from the pan. The mixture should stick together if pressed with your hand, but should not be overly oily.

Until ready to serve, cover with plastic wrap, pressing it onto the surface of the egg and onion so it doesn’t dry out.

Menu Ideas for the Festive Passover Season. Part 1.

The festival of Passover (Pesach) starts next Monday evening, 25th March, and continues for eight days. Jewish people all over the world celebrate the exodus of their ancestors from slavery in ancient Egypt.

There are many rituals and customs connected to Pesach and typically they mostly focus on food.

Before the festival begins, we ’spring clean’ our homes and during the eight days, we do not eat any chametz. Chametz is leavened grain and includes anything that contains even a trace of wheat, rye, barley, oats or spelt and which has been risen or fermented. Instead we eat matzo, a flat unleavened bread which looks like a large, square water cracker. It reminds us of the people fleeing from Egypt in such a hurry that their bread did not have time to rise.

The festival begins with the Seder, where family and friends sit down to a mammoth feast. The story of the exodus is recounted with words, songs and special foods. Weeks of thought and preparation go into the meal that follows, and even though we repeat this every year, we are always faced with the age old question: What will we cook for Seder this year?

 So to make everyone’s Pesach a little easier, here are a few suggestions for Seder night and the week that follows. The page numbers refer to recipes in ‘Monday Morning Cooking Club – the food, the stories, the sisterhood’. The new softcover edition has just been released and is available here and at all good book stores throughout Australia.

SEDER NIGHT

Charoset - For those who have never heard of it, charoset is a dish eaten at passover to symbolize the mortar in the bricks that were used by the Jews when they were slaves in Egypt. Last year we collected some different charoset recipes and we would love you to add yours here.

Fanny’s Chicken Soup (page 174) served with these matzo balls

Paula’s Calf Brisket and Ulnyik (page 80), an amazing recipe from my mum that is our staple Seder main course. Step by step instructions can be found in this short video.

Jacqui’s Cucumber Salad (page 133)

Judy’s Slow Roasted Pears (page 179)

Nicky’s Chocolate Mousse (page 193)

Sophie’s Passover Almond Bread (page 212)

New Recipe Anyone? Here’s one that we LOVE:

A little sneak peek from our new book (to be released April 2014) of the most delicious Pesach breakfast food or snack….Maxine’s Matzo Granola. Pesach will never be the same again.

A Luscious and Healthy Salad, Full of Goodness

This month’s #LetsLunch is celebrating the season of the (Northern Hemisphere) Spring as well as Daffodil Days in the U.S.A, supporting cancer awareness. In Australia we celebrate Daffodil Day  in October, our Spring.

It’s a time of hope, when we join together to help fight cancer by raising funds and increasing awareness. It’s a time to educate everyone across each country, to ensure that each and every person affected has the best care and support possible, and then to beat this thing once and for all.
We can all support this endeavour wherever we live, whatever we do and whichever season we are in!

At home, we try to nourish ourselves and our families with wonderful food. We  choose organic vegetables rich in colour and antioxidants, the best extra virgin olive oil we can find, and ingredients from sources we trust. And then simply put it all together with a good dose of love, the essential ingredient.

When I think of Spring, I think of bright, vibrant food that awakens the palate and the soul. This salad is a mouthwatering feast for all senses, full of colour, texture and immense flavour.

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the worldAnyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check back in a couple of days for a list of everyone’s #letslunch post right here.

It’s hamantashen time at our place.

The Jewish Festival of Purim falls on Sunday 23rd Feb this year. Hamantashen is the name for the sweet three-cornered filled pastry served at Purim, representing the ears of Haman, the villain of this festival.

Here is our wonderful recipe for fail proof hamantshen. Fill them with chocolate, jam, povidl (buy at gourmet produce stores or make your own), walnuts and sugar, poppyseed (my favourite filling is in Elisabeth’s beigli in our book), nutella and sultanas…whatever takes your fancy! We are sharing Merelyn’s mum Yolan’s fabulous hamantashen filling below – dried fruit with a hint of chocolate.

Our dough recipe appears in “Monday Morning Cooking Club – the food, the stories, the sisterhood”. The new softcover edition of the book will be available on our website and in all good book stores across Australia from 26th Feb.

Evy’s Hamantashen (from page 221 )

225 g (1 ½ cups) plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
60 g (1/4 cup) sugar
75 g sour cream

To make the dough, combine all the dough ingredients either in a food processor or by hand. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Roll the dough out to a 3 mm thickness. With an 8–9 cm diameter cookie cutter or glass, cut out circles from the dough. Place a teaspoon of your filling on each circle. Bring the three sides of the circle up into the centre (leaving a small opening at the top if you wish) to form a triangular pastry, pinching the three ‘joined edges’ to seal.
Place on the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Makes about 20

(All photos here by Alan Benson)

So what DO we eat while we watch sport on TV?

In our household, I have to be honest, we don’t watch a lot of sport. My parents’ house is a different story. You’ll always find the tellie on with horse racing, football, tennis, cricket – anything really. But the problem is they don’t eat anything while they watch. Maybe the odd apple, and that’s it. My household is the opposite. Not much sport-watching but lots of food.

So in a fantasty world where we might sit down to watch ‘The Cricket’, I can picture this: huge bowls of air-popped popcorn and a few cans of diet coke. Bowls of carrot sticks and spicy tomato salsa. Don’t be fooled. This is called saving calories in anticipation of what’s to come. Step aside diet-conscious folk, it’s time for the ultimate home made sausage roll. But with short cuts.

Ready to roll. Or is it bowl?

I start with kosher cocktail franks. I am not too sure why I think they have to be kosher except that’s what I grew up eating. They are quite delicious (bearing in mind they are casings full of goodness knows what).

You will need some puff pastry, preferably a good quality one bought from the store. Of course you could make your own, but the game is about to start and we don’t want to miss (insert name of favourite Cricket player HERE), do we?

So here is the uber-complicated recipe. Ready for it?

WARNING: They will only last a few minutes, and then all you’ll have is a plate of crumbs.

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the worldAnyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check back in a couple of days for a list of everyone’s #letslunch post right here:

Overcoming My Fear of Putting Ice Cream in the Oven

What dish freaks you out? You know, the one that you’ve always wanted to try but have just been too afraid to actually do it. My list used to be really long. Whole fish, fish generally, whole chickens, whole anything really, chiffon cakes, puff pastry, just to name a few. I have braved them all. Not exactly mastered, but braved. Tick. I have a shorter list these days and I am still afraid. These dishes are insurmountable.  Perfect choux buns, Yorkshire pudding, buttery shortbread biscuits, home made filo pastry and a bombe Alaska. With the bombe Alaska, my fear (among other things) is really how on earth the meringue browns without allowing the ice cream to melt. I also want da bombe to be da bomb. My kids tell me that means REALLY good. I am going to attempt a bombe Alaska.

It’s #LetsLunch time (the virtual monthly twitter inspired lunch date) – the first for the new year – and the theme is ‘new beginnings’. Translated into cooking lingo, I think this means trying out a dish we haven’t tried before. It’s also our youngest boy Jake’s 16th birthday this week, and we are in the middle of our summer vacation at the beach. In the context of this post, ‘at the beach’ is a euphemism for ‘ in a strange kitchen without any fancy cooking equipment’.

I am only telling you the last bit so I can rationalise why I am making this dish using every shortcut known to man.

I start all of this the day before the birthday. I want da bombe to be frozen solid before I ‘cook’ it.

Step 1: Ice Cream. Sure, we can all make ice cream (clears throat) but in the middle of a summer holiday I just can’t be bothered. And I don’t think Mr. !6 will care. In fact, I think he would prefer store-bough ‘cookies and cream’ to anything I could make. Unless it is chopped up maltesers in Blue Ribbon Vanilla but the melting and refreezing is just too complicated today. So I choose the ice cream based on a. the flavour and b. the shape of the tub. The shape of the tub is going to be the shape of da bombe.

Step 2: Cake. Yes I can hear you all thinking out loud ‘she’s NOT going to BUY cake, is she?’. I am indeed. I buy supermarket sponge. It will be a better bombe with a good quality butter or pound cake, but I actually want to see how it goes with plain ordinary every day cake.

Step 3: Meringue. I decide on 3 egg whites to 1/3 cup sugar. I am skipping the suggested cream of tartar and vanilla because I am on holidays. I think this might be a mistake.

Step 4: Assembly. The idea is to clad the ice cream in cake, and to do it quickly so the ice cream does not melt. I learn quickly that ice cream melts equally quickly when it is hot outside (and therefore hotter inside) so I have to work so fast. The pressure is on. When done, wrap the entire cake-covered ice cream in plastic wrap and stick it in the freezer. Fast.

Take the ice cream from the tub and place on a disc of pound cake which you have carefully cut to be precisely the same size and shape as the base of the ice cream.

Slice the cake and cover the outside of the ice cream with the cake slices. This is actually not as tricky as it looks. The cake sticks easily to the ice cream.

Cut the cake slices so they fit almost perfectly, but no need to obsess.

It doesn’t matter if it looks like a patchy patchwork…

Wrapped up nice and tight.

Step 5:  On the day of serving and at the time I need it, I make the meringue. I whisk the whites until stiff and then slowly add the sugar and beat until glossy and super stiff. It is not as glossy nor super stiff as I hope, maybe because I failed to add the cream of tartar? They will have to do.

Step 6:  I take da bombe out of the freezer and place it on a foil-lined baking sheet. I schmear (technical term) the meringue all over the cake, and then use a butter knife to make waves and troughs in the meringue (I am still learning). I coerce daughter Jessie to do the piping (at least I could blame her if it didn’t work) and she (quite expertly) pipes little mounds on the top using the ever faithful snap lock bag with a corner snipped off.

Almost-thick-and-glossy meringue.

A meringue bombe

Using a very technical piece of cooking equipment (a plastic bag), Jessie pipes some of the meringue decoratively over the top.

Yes, I need practice…

 Step 7: I put da bombe in a very hot oven (425F/215 C) and bake for 4 minutes or so, until the meringue is toasty brown. I force myself to stand next to the oven the entire 4 minutes!

Please watch carefully!

It’s ready when the meringue is toasty brown…

Step 8: Despite the fact that it is hot outside, I want to flame it. It will have to be done inside as it is a total fire ban today. I grab the Grand Marnier and pour a couple of spoons worth into a metal cup with a handle. I light it with a match and, with great trepidation, I pour it over da bombe. I want to see the whole thing flaming but am scared I’ll cause a bushfire (yes, from my kitchen) so we go slowly and all we get is a little flame at the top which really just burns the meringue.

We pour a little Grand Marnier in a metal cup and light it, then pour it over da bombe…see the flame?

You’re going to have to trust me here…da bombe is alight. I guess this trick is more effective at night…but you can see the burnt meringue at the top!

TADA.
Cut in half, it looks fantastic. And it tastes pretty good too…

I am proud. I do think da bombe is da bomb, and I have overcome my fear of cooking ice cream. It actually doesn’t melt! It’s a miracle. It is quite delicious and everybody is happy. My next bombe might be better – gourmet ice cream, home made butter cake and glossy meringue – but nothing will erase the memory of our first Bombe Alaska.

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the worldAnyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check back in a couple of days for a list of everyone’s #letslunch post right here:

Lisa’s Da Bombe Alaska at Monday Morning Cooking  Club

Grace’s Matcha Green Tea Yogurt at Hapa Mama

Jill’s Heavenly Angel Cake at Eating My Words

Lucy’s Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies at A Cook and Her Books

Linda‘s Trinidadian Black-eyed Peas  at Spicebox Travels

Nancie’s Vietnamese-style Chicken with Lemongrass at NancieMcDermott

Rashda’s Parathas at Hot Curries and Cold Beer 

Sonja’s Beetroot and Fetta Varenyky at Foodnutzz

Pat’s Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls at The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook