I am interested in both growing and cooking food.

Growing food is primordial—civilisation started because nomads in the Fertile Crescent wanted to look after their cereal (precursors of wheat, rye and oats) crops so they could be assured of a steady supply of. . .beer!

That at least is an arguable proposition. The nomadic hunter–gatherer lifestyle in the fertile plains between the Tigris and Euphrates would have been quite satisfactory. But once they realised barley etc could be used to make beer well, that was different! No wonder Iraq is littered with some of the oldest ruins and relics anywhere!

Gardening, using manure, compost and mulch—hey locking up carbon. Heritage fruit and vege varieties are just so much more robust and tasty than crappy hybrids. Chooks don’t just provide chicken manure you know—they also lay eggs! Eggs much tastier than any you can buy!

Cooking or brewing beer (same thing, pretty much) provides a lot more than “petrol for the body” as some sports coach twit once said. Great food you prepare nourishes the soul, brings families. communities together.

There is nothing more political than food!

From “Spice Market” by Jane Lawson

Chocolate star anise cake with coffee caramel cream

8 serves

200g good quality dark chocolate, roughy chopped
125g unsalted butter
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
115g caster sugar
50g plain flour, sifted
2 tsp ground star anise
55g ground almonds

Preheat oven to 190°C, grease & line a 23cm spring form cake tin

Put chocolate and butter in a bowl set over (and NOT touching) gently simmering water until mixture is melted.

Put eggs, egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and beat with electric beaters for 5 minutes or until thickened. Fold in the flour, ground star anise and ground almonds then fold in melted chocolate mix until evenly combined (mix will be quite runny.) Pour mix into tin and bake 30–35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in tin 5 minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack.

To make the coffee caramel cream:
whip 125ml double cream, 45g soft brown sugar* and 2tbsp brewed espresso coffee, cooled, until soft peaks form and the color is a pale caramel.


* I will use light muscovado sugar, much better than crappy CSR brown sugar.

wil make this today.

These are fantastic! Bought Thai Red Curry Paste and a food processor mean the work to make them is pretty minimal. I bought a little deep fryer from Woolies, about $60, making the deep frying very safe. (I worked in Q branch when I was in the APS, the number of fires in married quarters from chip fryers was pretty high  :) no worries with this little fryer (thermostat goes up to 190°C, not hot enough for spring rolls but fine for most other foods.)

FISH CAKES WITH CUCUMBER RELISH
Great served cold!

300g of some sturdy fish: snapper or flathead etc, or deep sea bream if snapper etc too expensive
8 kaffir lime leaves (a kaffir lime leaf is the big and the little leaf)
2tbsp red curry paste
1 egg
2tbsp thai fish sauce
1tsp sugar
2tbsp tapioca or cornflour
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
60g finely sliced french or snake beans

For the cucumber relish (make this first to chill)
4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or other white vinegar if you don't want to be authentic, slob!)
4 tbsp water to dissolve 1/4 cup granulated vinegar: thai is all sweet/sour)
1 head pickled garlick (from Chinese s/mart)
chunk fresh ginger root
1 cucumber cut into thin batons (sticks, moron!)
4 shallots (the little onion-y things. not scallions which you call spring onions)

Mix mix the vinegar (you just couldn't get the rice wine vinegar could you, loser?) water and sugar in a small pan on medium heat, stir until sugar dissolved THEN cool it, dummy! Not yourself, sheesh, the water-sugar-vinegar whatsit!
Get the head of garlick, separate the cloves and slice them finely. Add sliced shallots and cucumber batons, then add the vinegar-water-sugar thingy.
Put all that in the fridge.

Thinly slice (gotta be thin or these leaves will slice your oesophagus wide open!) 3 kaffir lime leaves
Put chunks of the fish, curry paste and egg into blender then blend! To a smooth paste
Put in a bowl and whack in the fish sauce, tapioca flour, sliced kaffir lime leaves and beans.
Mix well and shape mix into cakes 5cm across and not too thick, unlike your spotty selves!
Deep fry in batches (unless you have the world's biggest smacking deepfryer) in 190C oil. Takes about 4-5 minutes if you have oil temp right! Nice and brown. Drain on paper towels and keep hot!
Serve with the relish: you forgot about the cucumber relish, didn't you? Putz! And decorate with the other 5 kaffir lime leaves.

Too lazy to get kaffir lime leaves? (knew you were) Add a squeeze of lime or lemon juice to the fish etc.

Good to see you back George...and you have made a great start to your thread with Thai Fish Cakes.  I am def. going to try them. :)

Will add one of my own tomorrow ~~

St George of the Garden wrote on Nov 14^th, 2013 at 8:15am:

For the cucumber relish (make this first to chill) 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or other white vinegar if you don't want to be authentic, slob!) 4 tbsp water to dissolve 1/4 cup granulated vinegar: thai is all sweet/sour) 1 head pickled garlick (from Chinese s/mart) chunk fresh ginger root 1 cucumber cut into thin batons (sticks, moron!) 4 shallots (the little onion-y things. not scallions which you call spring onions) Mix mix the vinegar (you just couldn't get the rice wine vinegar could you, loser?) water and sugar in a small pan on medium heat, stir until sugar dissolved THEN cool it, dummy! Not yourself, sheesh, the water-sugar-vinegar whatsit! Get the head of garlick, separate the cloves and slice them finely. Add sliced shallots and cucumber batons, then add the vinegar-water-sugar thingy. Put all that in the fridge.

The relish sounds delicious and I'm going to make it. I always keep a bottle of rice wine vinegar in the fridge for sushi rolls, which I don't eat, but the family does.

I love pickles though and for my own use, I would probably cut the cucumber into fine slices rather than batons, although the batons would come in handy for the sushi rolls.

I don't have a deep frier, so would probably give the fish cakes a miss. Shallow frying would leave the fish cakes soggy. Maybe they could be baked instead?

Deep fryers only cost like $60 at Colesworths. Could try baking I guess. I would put 5mm of oil in a frypan and try that. I fry the cakes at 190°C.

They are delicious!

Tomorrow I will make salmon and ricotta canneloni: get some fish stock, bit of white wine, sliced shallot, sliced fennel bulbs get it simmering, add the salmon fillets (sliced to 1cm slices) till nearly cooked, remove, drain, mash, mix with ricotta, season, make the canneloni, cook and serve with spinach gnocchi.

Follow that with veal saltimbocca.

Forgot to mention: the Wild Oz stall (Adelaide Central Market) finally had wild boar ribs! yeah!

Sunday the offset smoker will be fired up: feral pig ribs, feral camel fillet, feral goat backstrap! (NEVER buy farmed goat, feral goat is not “goaty.”)

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/p535/tommetje5/General/Smoking_ribs_zps04a88b35.jpg

I currently have this in the oven.

http://www.taste.com.au/images/recipes/sfi/2009/07/23424_l.jpg


recipe here

That's an easy recipe Neferti. I'm going to try it this weekend. The recipe doesn't call for lightly precooking the pasty and apples separately which makes me wonder how the apples cook properly.

I'd like a glaze on the apples too - so maybe a sprinkle of brown sugar might help?

I'll experiment anyway and if I stuff up - I'll follow the recipe next time.

The recipe has an apricot jam glaze, brushed over the apples after the cake is cooked, check end of recipe.  The apples are thinly sliced so are well cooked.  Makes a nice dessert with whipped cream (or you could use icecream, I suppose).

Those apples don’t look like cooking apples, mantra, unless they are Jonathons (look too small for that) so I suspect the recipe uses eating apples which cook much quicker.

Neferti wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 9:38am:

The recipe has an apricot jam glaze, brushed over the apples after the cake is cooked, check end of recipe.  The apples are thinly sliced so are well cooked.  Makes a nice dessert with whipped cream (or you could use icecream, I suppose).

I was thinking it was the same pie that you posted on PA the other day. It isn't - my error.

I'll try the apple galette first. I don't like cakes much and prefer a thin crisp pastry pie or tart.

St George of the Garden wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 9:40am:

Those apples don’t look like cooking apples, mantra, unless they are Jonathons (look too small for that) so I suspect the recipe uses eating apples which cook much quicker.

I'll try Neferti's galette recipe first. It uses Granny Smiths, but it looks lighter with a more simple recipe. I've got some gala's so I'll use those instead of the granny's.

http://www.taste.com.au/images/recipes/del/2002/09/6675_l.jpg

1 (25 x 25cm) puff pastry sheet
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, thinly sliced
2 tbs melted butter
2 tbs caster sugar
Honey, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C.


Cut four 12cm circles from the puff pastry. Place on a lightly buttered baking tray.


Place the apples, overlapping, on top of the pastry. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.


Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden. To serve, drizzle with honey.

Got the pasta drying rack half full of sheets of pasta. Need to go for a walk later, buy some white and red wine, white for today, red for tomorrow.

mantra wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 9:51am:

Neferti wrote on Nov 16th, 2013 at 9:38am: The recipe has an apricot jam glaze, brushed over the apples after the cake is cooked, check end of recipe.  The apples are thinly sliced so are well cooked.  Makes a nice dessert with whipped cream (or you could use icecream, I suppose). I was thinking it was the same pie that you posted on PA the other day. It isn't - my error. I'll try the apple galette first. I don't like cakes much and prefer a thin crisp pastry pie or tart.

Sorry Mantra, the pictures did look a little alike. The Galette is easier and I was surprised that puff pastry would turn out so crisp and crunchy with the apple topping. Nice hot and even cold as a snack.

The other recipe is good, too, but more of a cake.

I have been experimenting with French and Italian cooking so will post some of those main course recipes, eventually.  Unfortunately, I cannot eat highly spiced food but lots of garlic, etc is OK, just cannot handle curry or chilli, so you might like to try a few recipes that I have.  If you have any recipe to share, please do so.  ;)

St George of the Garden wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 3:52pm:

Got the pasta drying rack half full of sheets of pasta. Need to go for a walk later, buy some white and red wine, white for today, red for tomorrow.

I tried making pasta eons ago, before there was special equipment. I failed. I can make good pastry and scones though.  ;)

I also cooked very complicated French recipes from a Cordon Bleu book I was given. I remember one recipe that involved chicken, wine, spices and breadcrumbs.  We had friends over for dinner (formal dinner occasions back in the 70's) and my female friend was a Teacher (Cookery).  The main course looked like your normal "Maryland Chicken", but it had taken 48 hours to produce (layer upon layer ... cook, coat, refrigerate, etc) and one bite and my friend (her husband and mine) were VERY impressed!  She asked for the recipe it was so impressive.  :)

Wish I still had the book The Author's first name was Robert, second name began with a C, I think.  Title was something like Cordon Bleu Cookery by Robert C.......

Neferti wrote on Nov 16^th, 2013 at 4:41pm:

I can make good pastry and scones though

I don't know about you - but cooking and sewing were compulsory in our first year of high school. Making good scones and pastry were drilled into our heads like the times table. You never forget.

Alas, back in 1961 boys had to do bloody woodwork. And I had to do art which was mostly boring as batshit lettering.

Would have loved to have gotten a grounding in cooking and touch typing.

Cannelloni was tasty enough but next time will roll it out a bit thinner, maybe to setting 5 or 6 instead of 4.

I liked sewing - hated cooking and wouldn't have minded doing woodwork, but it was a girl's school and woodwork wasn't on the curriculum.

Now girls have the option to do whatever subject they please.

Cooking can be pleasant at times, but it's not on my favourites list. I learnt to make healthy, but plain meals for my family and it hasn't extended much past that.

Smoker is heating up.

Wild boar ribs and some camel fillet sitting in brine in the fridge in the shed, they will go into the smoker as soon as the main chamber heats up, half an hour or so later will put some apricot or peach wood in the fire compartment which creates the smoke.

The offset smoker I have (like all offset smokers) is a hot smoker—it cooks the food in the main compartment and flavors it with smoke.

St George of the Garden wrote on Nov 17^th, 2013 at 1:55pm:

Smoker is heating up. Wild boar ribs and some camel fillet sitting in brine in the fridge in the shed, they will go into the smoker as soon as the main chamber heats up, half an hour or so later will put some apricot or peach wood in the fire compartment which creates the smoke. The offset smoker I have (like all offset smokers) is a hot smoker—it cooks the food in the main compartment and flavors it with smoke.

Is Demi lonely and you are trying to encourage the other mutts about the area? 

Conversely, are YOU lonely?  Call me on 555 2554 ::)

An offensive post from an offensive person. Hope Mods have noticed

Nope, a friend came down and helped me eat the delicious smoked ribs:
http://pbxmastragics.com/2013/11/15/famous-friday-raffles/comment-page-4/#comment-105318

St George of the Garden wrote on Nov 17^th, 2013 at 6:28pm:

An offensive post from an offensive person. Hope Mods have noticed Nope, a friend came down and helped me eat the delicious smoked ribs: http://pbxmastragics.com/2013/11/15/famous-friday-raffles/comment-page-4/#comment-105318

What's offensive about a 555 number?  ::)  Everyone knows it is what they use in Movies and TV shows. So not real. ROFL

You are way too sensitive .....

That's a classic French Tarte aux Pommes.  The apricot jelly glaze makes it look spectacular.

Auzgurl, Would you like a free delivery of some food and gardening threads to your forum? Second hand with one careful owner. Free to a good home. You just need to water them and fertilise regularly.  They can be inspected at Cats and Critters down there -vvvvv

I made this tonight.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1187/apricot+and+almond+tarts

http://www.taste.com.au/images/recipes/sfi/2005/06/1187_l.jpg

No reply. I'm going to drop those threads in here. If you don't want them, please shift them to chat or something.

If you need a hand renaming the forum or whatever, let me know.