Wagyu Steak + Roasted Kipfler Potato with Rosemary

Recently hubby has been very stressed and working hard at work, so the celebrate the end of the week and to welcome our loooonnnngggg weekend (yes... we've taken a couple more days off just to chill out), I've decided to make him a nice dinner. Steak!!!! How can a man resist steak?!?!? And it's not just a normal steak, it's a wagyu steak!

Steak doesn't appear in my household very often, since I'm not a meaty meat person (but every now and then I don't mind it!) and therefore I don't have much skills or techniques in cooking THE perfect steak! =P

And I think because this is a wagyu steak and it has saved me from making a tough rock hard meat! Initially I wanted the steak to be medium rare or medium... but it turned out to be well done with no pinkness inside! Oopppsss... but I did know that I have to rest the steak for the muscle to relax, so that helped a bit!!!!

Although the steak turned out to be well done, but the meat was still very tender - not hard and tough at all!!!! Lucky me! And to accompany the steak, I made some horseradish cream and mustard butter... hahaha... how did this come about!?!? Well... initially it was suppose to be just the horseradish cream with garlic butter, but when I opened up the jar of horseradish cream, I only had a spoonful of it left in there, and after I mixed it up with the garlic butter, it really lacked that spice in the flavour and that tingle in the tongue, so I added some mustard in to fix it! haha... it worked!!!

On the side there, I made some roasted kipfler potato as well. I love kipfler potatoes!!! It has this sweetness in it that no other potatoes has. I chopped it up and added a bit of olive oil, sea salt, pepper and rosemary and roasted in the oven for 30 min at 200C. Yummmm....

Long weekend... here I come!!!

Shredded Chicken Cold Dish + Japanese Soba

To ease the heat on a hot summer night, what's better than having a nice cold dish and a glass of chilled white wine for dinner!!! This dish is so easy to make, although it does sound a bit bland, but once you add the sauce in, it's absolutely divine! Sauce is the magic!

I've used chicken thigh fillet with all the fat trimmed off, but of course you can go for a healthier option of using chicken breast! I cooked the chicken in salted water till it's thoroughly cooked through, then drain and leave it to cool and shred. Then I sliced up one lebanese cucumber and put it aside, then cracked 3 eggs with a little salt and did an omlette and sliced it up again.

Now here comes the magic sauce! To be honest I don't know the exact measurement for each ingredient, but you can just adjust to your own liking! OK... note this down!!! Chopped garlic, soy sauce, chili oil, sugar and black vinegar. If you like, add some sliced chili in for some colour!

And for the soba noodle, just cook it in a pot of salted boiling water, then drain and run under cold or even iced water, then top with some shredded seaweed and a sprinkle of sesame. And for the sauce, you can easily get it from any Asian grocery store!

Note: excuse my shredded chicken, if I had the time I'd have shredded it more nicely instead of having chunks in there! Oh well... it was a week night dinner, so time was crucial, I really didn't want to have dinner at 9pm and hug my tummy to sleep!!!! =P

Another Left Over Mixed Platter

I think I'm on a roll of utilising my left over food here! In fact this 'mixed platter' (what a decent name to call my left overs!!! haha!!) was from the beginning of the month after a few friends came over for dinner.

Left over smoked salmon from making the arancini, left over bacon from the baked ocean trout, and left over sourdough bread. Sometimes when left overs are plated up nicely, it can be a pretty impressive dish!!! =)

White Nectarine Ricotta Tart

haha... this is another 'left over recipe'!!! This time the left over was the tart base from the Lemon Meringue Pie! And because the tart base can be frozen for later use, so I wasn't in a rush to use it up! =P

This time I've chosen to make a ricotta tart because it's a much 'healthier' option, especially when I used the reduced fat ricotta! And now it's the stone fruit season, so I made use of white nectarine to give it an extra touch! =)

I used a small tart tin for this particular one, because I didn't have enough base for a large one, so you might want to double the filling recipe if you're making a bigger/normal size one.

Ingredients:

175g reduced fat ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/8 cup of caster sugar

rinds of 1/2 lemon

1 small white nectarine (optional and you can use apple, pear or peach if you want)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1) Make the tart base recipe from the Lemon Meringue Pie. But instead of baking it fully for 35 min, bake for 20 min instead.

2) Mix the cheese, egg, caster sugar and rinds in the processor until combined.

3) Pour the mixture into the half baked base and arrange the sliced nectarine on top. Bake for 20 min.

4) Sprinkle the brown sugar on top, and bake for a further 5-8 minute or until the sugar is caramelised.

Roasted Pumpkin and Pancetta Risotto

Some people might know that I don't really like having left overs, regardless whether it is left over cooked food, or left over ingredients. Therefore I always write down exactly what I need for each meal before I go for my grocery shopping, and I always try to cook JUST enough for the meal... haha... so anti-Asian!!!! Asian always tend to over-cook, especially when you have guests over! The theory is 'you need to cook more than enough, otherwise it makes you look bad for not having enough food!'. But I reckon there is a difference between 'just enough' and 'not enough'!!!!

When I see left over ingredients in the fridge, I always want to use it up asap!!! And this time, it's the chicken stock! The first thing that came to my mind was RISOTTO!!! I quickly went to my cookbook collection and flipped through my Jamie Oliver series because he has some awesome risotto recipes! 'Roasted squash (pumpkin we call it here!), sage, chestnut and pancetta risotto'.... Ooooo that sounds nice! But to avoid MORE left over in the fridge, I omitted the sage and chestnut but instead I added in some dills - another left over ingredient I found in the fridge!

Serve 3

Ingredients

1/2 butternut squash, diced, de-seed

1/2 tbsp coriander seeds

1 small dried chilli

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

olive oil

6 slices of pancetta

a handful of chopped dill

1 basic risotto recipe (you can find the recipe in one of my older posts)

1) Preheat oven to 190C. Bash up the coriander seed and chilli with a pinch of sal and pepper in a pestle and mortar, and dust this over the diced pumpkin with a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss around until completely coated then bake for around 30 minutes or until soft to touch. Remove from oven to cool.

2) Place the pancetta into the oven and bake for 15 minute or until crisp.

3) Once the pumpkin is cooled, mash it with a fork, then add this to the end stage of risotto (before adding the butter and cheese) and stir to mix well.

4) When the risotto is fully done after adding the butter and cheese, add in the chopped dill and mix well.

5) Plate it up with a dollop of risotto and crispy pancetta on top.

OK... this risotto has become my other favourite!!!! The pumpkin adds the sweetness to it, and the coriander seed and chilli gives the dish the spice in tongue which is a totally opposite character to the pumpkin! By adding the dill in, it helps to give the dish some contrasting colour and the crispy pancetta was awesome!!!! If you want to go for a healthier option, you might want to try using kangaroo pancetta which has much less fat in it!

Also, I actually roasted the pumpkin the night before to save some time!!! Just a little hint if you want to make this as a week night dinner!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Christmas and new year are always filled with parties and celebrations, and that means food. This year is no exception!!! Besides the two big events, we had a few group of friends came around for dinner as well, therefore the whole 11 days between Christmas eve and the last day of public holiday was all about cooking and baking!

One night a couple of my high school friends came over for dinner for a catch up, plus it was my dear friend Sera's birthday... happy birthday gal!!!! So I thought I'd make a special dinner... Baked salmon fillet (I used the baked ocean trout recipe, which I found the salmon meat was much more tender!!! yummm), smoked salmon arancini (unfortunately I didn't take any photos... :( ), salad, and mussels by Lee... thanks Lee!

A dinner party wouldn't be complete without dessert! I started to flip through that new Asian dessert book I bought from Hong Kong - Everyday Treat 2 and I found the lemon meringue pie recipe! I have never made lemon meringue pie before, and I'm actually not a big fan of it because I've found it very sweet. But when I read this recipe, the amount of sugar in it is not actually that much! I guess that's the difference between western dessert and asian dessert recipes, so I gave this recipe a try!

Ingredients:

Pie Base:

195g unsalted butter

160g icing sugar

pinch of salt

37g egg

350g plain flour

Lemon Custard Filling

315g milk

36g custard powder

30g sugar

50g egg yolk

Zest and juice from 2 lemons

4 gelatine leaf

Meringue: 75g egg white, 40g sugar

Top Layer Meringue

50g egg white

30g sugar

Pie Base:

1) Sift the plain flour over the unsalted butter. Mix well.

2) Add icing sugar, salt and beaten eggs, then mix well with a rubber scraper and hand to make a dough.

3) Roll the dough in between 2 sheets of baking paper using a rolling pin till the dough becomes 3mm thick.

4) Line the pie mould with dough and cut off extra pie dough with a small knife.

5) Pierce hole using a fork and bake for 35min at 180C

Filling:

1) Beat egg yolk and 35g sugar with a hand whisk. Add in 1/3 of the milk and custard power. Whisk until smooth.

2) Heat the remaining milk then pour the it into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well.

3) Reheat the mixture again, and stir constantly until a thick paste form.

4) Add lemon juice and zest and fold well with a spatular

5) Prepare meringue - whisk the egg white with an electric mixer until foam. Then gradually add in sugar and whisk until soft peak form. Fold into the lemon mixture.

6) Prepare gelatine and add 1/4 of the lemon custard mixture into gelatine gently.

7) Pour the gelatin mixture into the leftover custard mixture and fold quickly until smooth.

8) Pour the mixture into the pie mould and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Meringue Top:

1) Whisk egg white with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add in sugar and beat until glossy. Pipe on top of the pie and burn with a culinary torch.

Yes yes... this is a relatively long recipe, but it's actually not hard at all, you just have to prepare things in stages! Personally I don't like lemon meringue pie at all, but this was actually quite nice, not sweet at all and it has a very fresh lemony sour taste, I guess you can reduce the amount of lemon juice if you want to make it less sour. The crust of this pie was one of the best I've ever tasted, it's buttery but not over the top, it stayed crunchy even with the custard sitting in it overnight!! The only thing that let me down was the pipping of meringue on top, but I can't blame the recipe for it, it was just my lack of practise!!! Ooopppsss...

This recipe definitely gets my thumbs up for it!!!!!

Cardammn Muffins & Blueberry Muffins

After making the cream brulee cheesecake, I had some left over sour cream!! So I flicked through my cookbooks and see what else I can make to finish off the carton of sour cream! The first book that I went to is the muffin book, thinking that I could make some muffins for lunch for both hubby and I. Yeah... both of us have been eating too much during the xmas/new year break, and a light lunch is necessary!!!

Ingredients

1.5 cup self raising flour

pinch salt

1 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

50g butter, melted

1/3 cup sour cream

1) Sift flour, salt and cardamom and stir in sugar.

2) Beat egg, melted butter and sour cream together, and pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

3) Fill the muffin pan 3/4 full and bake at 200C for 15-20 min

When I made the muffins, I took out the cardamom from step 1, and when I finished step 2, I divided the batter into 2, and added cardamom into one and blueberries into the other! Haha... so I get 2 flavours from one batch of muffins!!! That's what I love about making muffins, most muffin recipes are so versatile, and you can just add and omit the flavours you like, and bake according to what you have in your pantry!!!

These muffins were awesome, it has the perfect crunchy top and a soft and moist center, which I believed was the magic of sour cream!

Cream Brulee Cheesecake

The first section I walk to when I go into a book store is the cookbook section!!! I just love flicking through those books with beautiful pictures with delicious looking food!! In my recent trip to Hong Kong, I bought a couple of cook books, and one of them is all about dessert and cakes. What's different about the dessert books in Aus and hong kong is that hong kong ones are much more fancy and delicate with a touch of Japanese and French, where as most desserts here are very rustic and bold.

First recipe I tried out from this new dessert cook book "Everyday Treats 2" is the earl grey mousse cake, but unfortunately I can't remember whether I took a picture for it... oopppsss.. I need to have a good look at my photo library!!!

And this cream brulee cheesecake is the second cake from the book. And one thing to note is Asian Cookbooks tend to cater for smaller portions. For desserts, I usually have to do either 1.5 times or double the recipe to suit the standard cake tins here!

Ingredients:

120g Arnotts Nice biscuits (or whatever plain biscuits you like)

50g melted unsalted butter

52g cream cheese (I used the light version!)

100 whole egg

52g egg yolk

365g whipping cream

40g sugar

160g sour cream

1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1) Use a food processor to break the biscuits into crumbs (or put the biscuits in a freezer bag, and crush with a rolling pin, but I usually use a food processor because it's much quicker, and less effort! :P)

2) Add in melted butter and mix well

3) Press the biscuits mixture into the tin base. And refrigerate until needed.

4) Whisk cream cheese and sugar using a hand whisk. Add in sour cream and mix well.

5) Add in eggs and egg yolk gradually. Mix well. Then add in whipping cream and vanilla essence. Mix well.

6) Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 80min at 150 degrees.

7) Leave it in the oven with the oven door slightly opened to cool completely. Sprinkle with brown sugar (or raw sugar) on top and caramelise with a culinary torch.

The above recipe is my modified version, which suits the standard cake tins here. Plus I modified the whole egg and egg yolk proportion so I don't 'waste' as much egg white! Well... I usually do store the egg white for use of something else. And what I like about Asian recipes is that they tend to be less sweet!!!!! I guess it's kinda healthier!!! =P