Paul's [recipe] Corner

From Ep 4 Food Trail Tasmania

(goes great with the mussels)

600g of flour
1 tsp salt
350 mls of warm water
2 tsp dried yeast powder
Pinch of sugar
1 tblsp Olive oil
Peeled potatoes sliced very thinly
Sea Salt
Crushed garlic
Rosemary sprigs
Olive oil

Method: add a pinch of sugar to the 350 mils of warm water along with the olive oil and 2 tsp of dried yeast. Give it a stir and let sit for a few minutes. Add the salt to the flour and mix through then either in a bowl or on a work bench make a well in the centre of the flour. Gradually add the yeasty water to the flour and incorporate until you have a ball of dough. You may not need all the water or you may need to add a little more. Once you have a ball of dough give it a good knead on a floured work surface for about 5 minutes or so. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and loosely cover with Cling wrap and leave in a warm area until the dough doubles in size. Turn out of the bowl again onto a floured work surface and roll into a long sausage. Cut this into six equal portions, roll into balls and there you have the bases for 6 pizzas!

Roll out your dough and place on an oiled pizza tray. Cover the pizza dough base with a layer of over lapping thin potato slices, sprinkle with salt, crushed garlic, fresh rosemary sprigs and drizzle a little of the olive oil over it. Put in a hot oven until it is cooked.

From Ep 4 Food Trail Tasmania

Olive oil
Garlic finely chopped
Red Capsicum finely sliced
Paprika powder
Red chili finely sliced – as much or as little as you want
1 100mg jar of Tas Saf saffron – filled up with water the night before
2 cups short grain Rice – I use Arborio or buy Spanish rice - Arroz Calasparra
10 cups of chicken stock
1 can of chopped tomatoes
4 Rennoch Quails – boned and cut in quarters
2 chorizo sausages sliced 5 ml thick on the diagonal
8 – 10 Chipolata sausages
250 g of scallops
10 mussels in the shell
Peas
Green Beans

Heat olive oil in paella pan, sprinkle in some Paprika and garlic then add the quail and sausages. Coat well with oil and paprika frying until just cooked and coloured. Add the chorizo 5 minutes after the quail and cook also. Remove all meat from the pan and keep warm. Add a little more oil to the pan if needed and then add some garlic, chilli and the capsicum – cook till softened. Add in the canned tomatoes bring to boil and then add the rice. Coat rice well allowing it to absorb any moisture from the tomatoes before adding the Saffron and some chicken stock. Traditionally you are not supposed to stir a Paella just adding in all the stock and letting it cook but I tend to do mine a little more like a risotto – add some stock give it a stir and let the rice absorb the stock then add another ladle give it a stir….etc just like cooking any rice dish you don’t want it to cook too fast or too slow so keep an eye on it.

When you have used about ¾ of your stock you should then put in your seafood, peas and beans more stock give it a stir and let the rice absorb the liquid. Finally check for seasoning and then arrange the warm quail and sausages in the rice, add the rest of the stock cover and cook – no more stirring – until the rice is to the texture and consistency you like ie not too dry not to moist. At this stage a golden caramelised crust – called a Socarrat will form on the bottom of the pan -in Spain this is considered the best part.

If you are cooking in a Paella pan on a Webber or BBQ then you can add soaked wood chips to the coals and cover the Webber (or put the BBQ lid down) so as to encourage the smoke to be absorbed by the rice adding another layer to the Paella. In fact the Paella pan was designed to encourage the smoke to come up the sides of the pan and into the dish itself!

Traditionally you should eat directly out of the pan with friends gathered around. Paella goes great with Sangria, Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris or a cracking good Pils.

From Ep 4 Food Trail Tasmania

1 kilo mussels
1 red chili finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
Olive oil
Butter
1 leek washed and finely sliced
1 baby fennel finely sliced
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 bottle of stout
Parsley to garnish

Wash and de-beard the mussels if need be. Heat a small amount of oil and butter in large pot and gently fry some of the garlic and chili. Throw the cleaned mussels into the pot turn up the heat and add a generous splash of the stout. Cover with a lid and cook until mussels open giving the pan a shake every now and then. Once all the mussels have opened tip them into a colander and strain the juice into a bowl and reserve.

Add some more oil and butter to the pot and gently fry a little more garlic and chili adding in also the fennel and the leeks. Cook until translucent and then add the tomatoes, the stock from the mussels and a little more beer. Simmer for a few minutes to combine all the flavours and check for seasoning. Return the mussels to the pot to warm through and then serve in big bowls garnished with chopped parsley and some warm crusty bread.

From Ep 4 Food Trail Tasmania

250g extra fresh scallops
2 tbls Mayonnaise
Good squeeze of Wasabi paste
1 tsp finely diced Pickled ginger
mixed soft lettuce leaf
chilli oil
salmon roe

Roughly chop the scallops into a fine dice. Mix wasabi and pickled ginger into the mayonnaise. This is a to ‘your’ taste thing – you don’t want the wasabi and ginger to over power the scallops which are very mild and slightly sweet. Add enough of the mayo mix to coat but not swamp the scallops. Arrange the mixed soft leaf lettuce in the middle of a plate and place a tbls of the scallop mix on top. Dress with some salmon roe and drzzle some chilli oil around the plate.

From Ep 4 Food Trail Tasmania

Stout Oyster Mornay

1tbls butter
1 tbls flour
A little splash of milk
A bigger splash of stout
Grated cheddar
Grated parmesan

Make a rue by heating the butter in a saucepan and then add the flour to combine – cook but don’t brown the flour. Add a little splash of milk to wet the flour and make it a paste and then add some stout to further loosen and liquefy the mixture. Add about a ¼ cup of both cheeses and continue to cook the mixture until the cheese is melted and combined. The consistency should be of a thick custard.

Spoon mixture over oysters making sure to completely cover the oyster, sealing it in the mixture so that it steams itself inside the mornay mix. Place under a grill and cook until the top is nicely browned.

Soy and Sake Oysters

1 part soy to 2 parts Sake
So: 1tbls soy sauce
2 tbls good sake
Zest from one lemon
Roughly crushed wasabi peas

Mix soy and sake together and spoon over oysters. Place a generous pinch of lemon zest on each oyster and then a pinch of the crushed wasabi peas. Eat and enjoy.

Note: put the peas on just before eating or else they will soak up the soy and sake dressing and become soft. The wasabi peas offer a textural crunch that complements the softness of the oyster and also a little bit of that Japanese heat that complements the soy.

From Ep 3 Food Trail Tasmania

500 mils of full cream milk
5 egg yolks
200g of white sugar
1 tbls freeze dried ground Pepper Berries
¼ vanilla pod
Rind of one orange

Put milk in a saucepan and heat gently. Add the Pepper berry powder, vanilla beans scraped out of pod and the pod also and the orange rind. Heat to combine all the flavours but dont boil then let cool down a little. Beat egg yolks and sugar together. Add some of the warm milk to the beaten egg and sugar combo to combine and warm up and then add the egg mixture to the milk. Return to the stove and continue to heat, stirring often until the mixture thickens enough to lightly cover the back of the spoon – make sure you do not bring it to a boil.

Remove from heat and strain discarding the solids. Chill in the freezer and then mix in ice cream maker as per instructions for the mixer.

Note: the freeze dried pepper berries are fruitier and have much less heat than the air dried pepper berries. If you made this recipe with ground air dried pepper berries it would be very hot. Also the freeze dried pepper berries make a vibrant purple ice cream where as the air dried will make a much darker midnight blue coloured ice cream. You could also add the Pepper Berries to the custard mixture right at the end of the cooking process, before you chill it – this would probably retain the vibrant colour as I found once the pepper berry powder had cooked in the milk mix it lost some of it’s vibrancy and took on a slightly grayish tinge.

From Ep 3 Food Trail Tasmania

1 Boned leg of lamb tied up
2 cloves of garlic cut into quarters
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Stab lamb with a sharp knife and insert the slivers of garlic into the slits. Rub lamb with salt and pepper then seal in a hot pan with the olive oil. Brown on all sides then remove from pan.

1 onion sliced
2 cloves of garlic sliced finely
4 anchovie fillets
Olive oil
2 carrots diced
2 sticks of celery diced
650 mils of alcoholic apple cider ( I prefer sweet but you can use dry also)
250 mls of beef stock
1 can chopped tomatoes
½ cup each Black (kalamata) and green olive (Spanish queens with pip)
Rind of one orange
Juice of one orange
Fresh Thyme
250g button mushrooms
250g of green beans

Soften the onion garlic and anchovies in olive oil in the same pan as you browned the meat for several minutes – don’t burn them. Add carrots and celery and cook for 5 minutes to seal and colour a little. Put lamb back into the pan including any juices that have come from the lamb. Pour in Apple cider, beef stock, tomatoes, orange rind, orange juice and olives. Season with the thyme, salt and pepper and then bring to the boil.

When at boil turn off heat cover pan with lid or alfoil and place in an oven at around 160 – 170 and cook for around 1 and a ¼ hours. Remove lamb from oven and give a stir adding the mushrooms return to the oven for another 30 minutes. Add the beans and then return to the oven until cooked.

Serve on it’s own or with polenta or mashed potato/pumpkin. If the sauce is still a little watery you can remove the lamb and keep warm and then return the pan to the stove top and reduce the sauceo the desired consistency.

From ep 3 Food Trail Tasmania

2 Tail end Fillets of Huon Salmon
½ cup of white sugar
½ cup of sea salt
¼ cup of honey

Crush salt and sugar together to mix well, place layer in a glass dish that will fit the salmon. Wash and dry the Salmon fillets and then place on to the sugar salt cure. Cover the top with more of the mixture and then press firmly so that the fish is well coated. Drizzle honey over fillets. Cover dish with cling film and put in fridge for a couple of hours. Remove from fridge and turn the fillets over cover with cling film and leave for another two hours. You will notice a lot of liquid has come out of the fillets this is what you want. You are drawing out the water and in it’s place the fish is taking in the sugar salt and honey flavours.

Remove fish from cure and rinse under cold running water – you will notice the fillets are firmer and dryer. Fry fillets in a pan with some olive oil until browned and cooked. Careful not to over cook as the curing has already cooked it to some extent.

To make Wasabi May take two or three tablespoons of good quality Mayonnaise add a generous squeeze of Wasabi paste (from one of those tubes you can get at a super market) and mix well. Add amounts to taste for heat according to your taste buds.

Serve on a bed of steamed Bok Choy or Spinach or with a Spinach Salad.

From Ep 2 Food Trail Tasmania

Saddle of Peppered Venison served on a Boysenberry and Porcini sauce with Swede and carrot mash and three cabbages

2 Venison loins approx 250 – 300g each
Crushed black pepper
Sichuan pepper
Caraway seeds
1 large Swede
3 carrots
Milk
butter
Red, green and Savoy cabbage
½ cup apple juice
1 jar Boysenberry sauce
Porcini mushrooms
Beef stock
Garlic chives
Lemon

Trim venison loin of sinue and fat. Mix black pepper, Sichuan pepper and caraway seeds together in equal amounts then roll loin in mix to coat the meat well. Brown and seal all sides in a hot pan with a little olive oil, then finish in a moderate (160 fan forced – 180 normal) oven for 7 – 10 mins or so depending how you like your meat. 7 minutes for rare 10 mins for medium. Keep checking your meat as it cooks and remember that when you take it out of the oven and rest it the meat will continue to cook from the residual heat so take it out a little before it reaches the desired texture.

For the mash peel the Swede and carrot and chop into equal size pieces. Put into salted boiling water and cook until tender. Drain. Mash Swede and carrot together in the pan adding a little milk and some butter. Season with salt and pepper. I like this mash a little chunky so I didn’t bother with to mash it thoroughly.

For the cabbage: slice equal amounts of each cabbage and cook in salted boiling water with some apple juice added just to add a little bit of sweetness to the cabbage.

For the sauce: soak dried porcini mushrooms in boiling water once soft remove mushrooms squeezing out excess liquid and slice finely. Reserve soaking liquid. In a pan add the boysenberry sauce, porcini mushrooms, mushroom stock, beef stock, crushed black pepper, garlic chives finely sliced and cook for 10 – 15 minutes. I had never made this sauce before so it was a real seat of the pants adventure. I just added a bit of stock tasted it and then added a little more then adjusted with pepper and a little more mushroom stock etc So I cannot give accurate measurements. Finish sauce with a squeeze of lemon juice and then some butter to add a lovely silky sheen.

To serve pour some sauce on a plate and sit sliced venison on top then drizzle a little more sauce over the top. Serve with the mash and three cabbage.

From ep 2 Food Trail Tasmainia

One head of cauliflower approx 600 – 700g
250 ml of milk – full cream
750 mls of chicken stock
1 stick of celery
1 leek finely sliced
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp of nutmeg
½ cup of cream
One truffle
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter and olive oil

Slice leek and celery finely and then cut up the cauliflower. Heat oil and butter in a large pot add leek and celery and sweet down a little then add the cauliflower. Continue to cook for five minutes or so as to caramelise the flavours. Add milk, stock, nutmeg and bay leaf bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Cook until the cauliflower is tender.

Meanwhile heat the cream in a saucepan and add the chopped up truffle so as to infuse the cream with the truffle flavour and aroma. For this soup you would like to use about 20 – 25grams of truffle in the cream and then a slice or two in each bowl served. Truffles aren’t cheap though!

Once the cauliflower is cooked put soup into a blender and blend till silky smooth adding the truffles and cream. Return to the heat and taste for seasoning adding salt and pepper as you like. Serve in bowls with a slice of truffle as garnish.