http://shizuokagourmet.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/ramen-tonkotsu-ramen-professional-recipe/

And here is my result – pretty yum, but not like the photos, oh well.

What went well?  Well, the site was right, you do need to purge the blood and veins out – oh GOSH it was DISGUSTING!!!!  The water was pink and then I had to get scissors and cut off the yuck blood clots too eww eww eww.  So anyway, then you get a new pot of water and then boil the bones. Boil them into absolute smitherines!  Like this is what I ended up with after 4 hours (sorry I wasn’t committed enough for the full 15 hours specified on the site hahaha).

And the strained soup.  Amazing, it did turn whiteish!! All this just from bones and water!

To come up with the final dish, I added miso paste to flavour, soy, white pepper, sesame oil and salt to taste.  I served the soup with some blanched fresh ramen noodles, and topped with a soft boiled egg, seaweed and corn.   I guarantee a warm and snuggly feeling after having a huge bowl of this… although I must also say… a bit of a belly from all that delicious soup!

Here is my finished product and the packet if you’re interested!

I was soooo happy with the result.  The top and side were crispy and “short”, and the filling was JUST hot but not burn your mouth hot. Next time maybe I’ll take it out of the tin to finish off in the oven, because the base wasn’t as brown as the rest.  But nevertheless, pat on the back.  To save time, I’m now going to use the rest of my pastry and line the springform tins and put them in my freezer for next time

Take 3 cups of rolled oats, and soak overnight in 1.5 cups of apple juice.  Then in the morning, stir through a cup of yoghurt – any flavour – I’ve used vanilla or strawberry.   Let it continue to sit in the fridge and let the oats get softer, and then when you’re about to serve, stir in some chopped roasted almonds, some grated apple and some honey.  I garnished it with more almonds on top of a dollop of more yoghurt; and some apple which I grated with my finger slicing device otherwise known as a mandoline.  *shudder*.  Well, off to a healthy start, it must mean that you’ve earned the right to a fry up.  cooking bacon and eggs and sausages for 7 people could mean a morning of slaving away at the stove, rather than entertaining – a definite no no.  And that’s where my tray bake english breakfast comes in.

You can have it all prepared and put in the oven and all you’ll need to do is cook the eggs, and delegate someone to make your toast!  Turn on your oven to 200 degrees, put in as many sausages as you need, cook for 10minutes.  Then, put your mushrooms in, and drizzle with some oil, and layer your bacon on top.  Bake for a further 10 minutes until your bacon is cooked to your liking and the mushrooms are soft. How easy is that??  I served it with sunny side up free range eggs and woodfired italian toast.  With my 3 course breakfast, one sausage and one piece of toast was enough!  My tomatoes were gorgeous – sweet and rose red, so i opted to serve them au natural and simply seasoned.  They tasted amazing!  And if your guests still aren’t stuffed, serve them what was regarded as the favourite of the day – french toast with poached pears and caramel sauce.  Again, really handy because you can make both the poached pears and the caramel sauce before people come!

I poached some buerre bosc pears in a syrup of half water, half sugar with a cinnamon quill chucked in.  I boiled them til i could poke a knife in.  Then chill in the fridge.  For the caramel sauce, mix butter, cream and brown sugar in a saucepan on low heat until combined.  For the french toast, beat eggs with some sugar and milk, and soak the bread in until it’s all soggy.  Then panfry in a little butter.  Plate up and enjoy warm and you’ll forever have your friends banging on your door for more

It’s really annoying, because my cravings for food are not just triggered by smells or by sight. They are also triggered by SOUND!  The pfffssttt of a can of diet coke opening makes me run for the vending machine. The crackle of a chip packet… and today – my friend talking about eggplant made me change my dinner plans from fajitas to eggplant.  Here’s the way I make a healthy version of spicy sichuan eggplant.  It’s usually sitting in a pool of tasty yummy oil from the eggplant being deepfried.  But instead, what I do is steam the eggplant!  A medium sized eggplant – chopped.  While you steam it (it takes 15minutes-ish), you can prepare the aromatics:  2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, a knob of ginger, a sprig of spring onion sliced and a handful of chopped coriander.

You can use pork mince or chicken mince.  Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a hot wok. I say a couple of tablespoons because you do want to make it a bit more yummy since you saved on the deep frying , then saute the ginger and garlic.  Add the mince and cook the mince.  When the mince is almost cooked, add the spring onions and stir fry until cooked.  Add the now ready eggplant plus 1 tablespoon EACH of spicy bean paste sauce,  hoisin sauce, soy sauce.  In a small bowl, mix a teaspoon of cornflour in some chicken stock and pour into the wok and simmer until thickened.  Now you can put a dash of sesame oil and then stir in the coriander at the last minute.  Serve with steamed rice.  YUM!

When it’s done, I should have made my own pasta, but I was too hungry and lazy, so I just used spaghetti.  I drizzled it with truffle oil for a special luxurious touch, and served with parsley    There’s so much left for my freezer for a few more dinners

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sour-cream-chocolate-cake-2/Detail.aspx

It makes a huge batch. I got 16 full sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes out of it!

And the second purpose of my blog post, is to say – now I know why you have to use castor sugar if it says castor sugar! I made the cupcakes two days ago, and today reaching for one of them, I can see little white speckles all over them! On closer inspection, it is undissolved sugar! The recipe doesn’t say castor sugar, and since castor costs more than normal sugar I used normal….. learnt my lesson! No impact on taste or the inside though.

I find this case’s texture excellent for shaping, and making children’s cakes, it is very sturdy but still soft and crumby. Hope you find it useful!

Winter – perfect for long slow stews. This recipe comes from Australian Gourmet Traveller. The sauce is very rich. It is pretty much just white wine and tomatoes! The saffron adds a luxurious touch to the melt in your mouth braised meat. It’s fantastic as you prepare it, whack it in the oven and then forget about it for a couple hours whilst you enjoy your guests’ company rather than slaving away in the kitchen and letting them have all the fun!

Apparently it’s a recipe from a Melbourne restaurant called Massani. It’s in the section of Gourmet Traveller where readers write in asking for recipes from their favourite restaurants.   Here’s the link:

http://gourmet.ninemsn.com.au/gourmettraveller/recipes/db/gourmettraveller/71/7166.asp

First up, I bought this lovely fella – it was $15 a kg and this guy was 3kgs.  He was really gross to touch though

I thought it was great value, as the salmon is already gutted, so you’re really eating pretty much all of it except the head and the spine!  First, wash him and then pat dry with a paper towel.  Next, stuff his belly with fronds of dill and parsley, and some lemon slices.  Then, rub him all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Wrap tightly in foil – double layers – and oops, I was lazy and didn’t grease the top layer of foil, thinking the oil on the fish was enough to make it non stick. So, the skin came off, oops  Nevermind.  Put the whole wrapped parcel on your barbeque on medium heat.  And cook it for 30 –  40 minutes.  It’s cooked if you stab through it and your skewer or knife goes through easily  This is what he looked like when we unwrapped it.

And after we ate the top layer, between 14 of us, we only ate 3/4 of the fish!  It was totally cooked to perfection.  One second more and it wouldn’t have been so perfect. Thumbs up guys! It was soo silky and delicate.  Highly recommend this for your Christmas table!

As if that wasn’t enough, Cecilia also cooked a pork roast.   Salt the skin and leave it overnight in the fridge to dehydrate and you’ll have the most perfect crackling.

Some vegetable is required – and the grilled capsicum and green zucchinis definitely suited the occasion with their very Christmassy colours!

My plate – a bit piggy? We also had chargrilled prawns and a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and pancetta.

After a couple of hours rolling around the floor in pain from over indulging, our bellies made some room for dessert which came in the form of chocolate tart . The recipe is the Matt Moran one from masterchef.  I added some of the extra roasted walnuts on top, but really I was lazy, I should have made them into praline, but I was in my food induced coma

And the slightly lighter option was creme caramel.  It’s just eggs, sugar and milk – how healthy is that?  I was very pleased with this one, using full cream milk absolutely makes a difference as it makes a more substantial custard.   Loved it!

And to wash it all down – sangria!  I had a few glasses of this, sooo easy to drink!!

Thanks for reading me guys, have a wonderful Christmas! And let me know what’s on your Christmas table this year

Foodiechat xoxo

It is SO cold lately, that all I want to eat every night coming home from work is a hot bowl of noodle soup.  Usually that’s noodles (udon, egg noodles, rice noodles), with veges of some sort, meat of some sort and some fish balls.  Tonight, I had some leftovers from a steamboat meal so my trick was to poach all the ingredients for just long enough to cook them without turning them into a soggy mess.  Two bowls of water going at once.  One for the fish ball squares – they need to be boiled for 10minutes.  And whilst that is going, poach the other ingredients in order of delicateness - golden mushrooms, shitaki mushrooms, then the tripe and finally the seafood ever so slightly.  Rinse the rice noodles under hot water (if you boil them they will be too soggy). And make the soup base: boil 2 cups of chicken stock, and add a slurp of soy sauce, a sprinkle of white pepper, a few drops of sesame oil and some chopped spring onions.  Place refreshed noodles in a bowl, and arrange all the ingredients nicely on top.  Pour on the hot soup and serve steaming hot.  No need for heaters and woolly socks, you will be warmed to the core In 15 minutes flat too