Food adventures - cooking for 6

Like most Chinese people, I over cater. Chronically over cater. I mean, it must be an  in built genetic and cultural belief that there must be enough at any given time to feed double the number of guests you're expecting. Because who knows who else will drop by. And the number of guests you're expecting should always be rounded up by at least an additional 25%. Just in case.

So this is what I listed as menu for Australia Day light lunch:

• Turkish bread (dips/dukkah)
• Deep fried chicken wings
• Spring rolls
• A salad or two of some kind
• Maybe a mini quiche thingy
• Maybe lamb (cutlets) – Sam Kekovich tells me I need lamb to be Australian
• A baked pastry dessert / olliebollen – depends if I have energy/time to make this in the morning
• Watermelon
• Ice cream/icey poles (I have Fruit Yoghurt Splits)

Additional just in case food: nachos, popcorn, BBQ prawns, salt & pepper squid, fish gujons and also an open filo apple pie. Not all of these were done... And this was just the pre-planning list.

I did make 80% of this, I only had from 11 til about 12:30 to cook.

The amount I actually pre-paredcooked:



Plate piled high!



1 mini loaf of Garlic Ciabatta

12 Vegemite & Cheese Palmiers (amended recipe)

24 Salmon & Chive Mini Quiches (amended recipe)

2 kg worth of Deep Fried Chicken Wings

1 kg worth of Parmean Encrusted crumbed Lamb Chops (amended recipe, no salsa)

Antipasto board
Papadums1 giant bowl of Garden Salad

1 giant bowl of Watermelon (cubed)

1 giant bowl of vegetarian fried rice (contains egg)

1 (unsuccessful) Banana Tart Tatin (or turn over tart)

Garlic Ciabatta

I bought the ciabatta loaf and just buttered and garlic'd it up! The pre-minced garlic tube you find in Coles or Woolworths is really handy for this and much fresher than jar. It doesn't really beat mincing your own but when you're short on time and expecting guests pronto this is simple cheat.

Vegemite & Cheese Palmiers (amended recipe)

I changed the filling as I didn't have enough parmesan. I used Vegemite & shredded cheddar cheese. I was initially meant to make a pull-apart loaf but didn't have enough time to make the dough. So this recipe was really handy. I only made 1 sheet of puff pastry and it made 12 small palm sized palmiers. Great as a snack. I love Vegemite and cheese and this is a quick and crunchier version of the toastie. The rolling of the puff pastry takes some getting used to, but other wise very easy to make.

Salmon & Chive Mini Quiches (amended recipe)

I find smoked salmon for mini quiches too over-powering in flavour. Instead I used canned Atlantic wild salmon, just very small pieces. I removed the dill from the recipe, not a dill fan. Used chives and 1 more egg. Lessened the cream - depends how runny you like your quiches I think.

Personally, in future I'd remove the salmon altogether and just go with normal bacon quiche lorraine and maybe a vegetarian variation - semi-sundried tomatoes.

Plate filled with quiches, garlic ciabatta & palmiers

Deep Fried Chicken Wings

I had a pre-mix fried chicken seasoning - bought from VHT (Asian grocers). It tastes a bit like what you'd get if you buy nasi lemak fried chicken. But I added extra paprika, salt & pepper and floured the chicken before frying to get more crispy-ness. It was easy finger food, but the frying in a small deep fryer took quite a long time.

Parmean Encrusted crumbed Lamb Chops (amended recipe, no salsa)

No cutlets to be found last minute at IGA. Bought lamb fore-chops, a bit more grissly - little round bone but meat texture-wise same as cutlets. Cutlets are just easier to cook through and pretty. I tenderised and then marinaded the lamb a bit (salt & peppered the lamb and added some dried thyme). Recommendation - mix some rosemary in would be even better than the thyme.

My (unsuccessful) Banana Tart Tatin (or turn over tart)

I didn't have a stove top compatible baking dish - so that's failure number one. I tried to reduce the sugar required for the caramel, failure number two. I also added cinnamon to the caramel... this didn't really affect the recipe. So essentially my caramel failed to "crystallize".

The banana gave out more liquid than I imagined.

Finally, I rushed the pastry part and added too much milk for glazing. This became a scoop out dish, the sugar-hit is deadly even with the reduced sugar. Served with Coffee & vanilla ice-cream, delicious if you have a sweet-tooth.

Idea for next time: just use small ramekins and serve straight from oven with a dollop of double cream on top and ice-cream on the side. Could try this with stewed apples!

The Chinesey recipes I won't bother going into, there's so many easy ways to make these. That you really don't need further instructions from me.

Overall the lamb was a great hit, I shall have to try this again with pork chops or something else. Have to say you do end up throwing out the oil you shallow fry in as the parmesan and breadcrumb mixture just ruins the oil for re-use for anything else.

I'm going to do olliebollen sometime next week and of course try the open filo apple pie this weekend when I find a spare moment to cook them. Tonight... pasta or lasgna?

Koeksisters mishmash recipe

I didn't really follow any specific koeksister recipe. Read through a number of variations and was intending to make a vegan batch & a non-vegan batch. Plan fell through as I couldn't get hold of Ogran No Egg - an egg substitute.

The idea was to do two batches, one for work morning tea & one for a pot luck gathering with some friends tomorrow night.

The syrup I made the prior night, it contained the following:
1.5kg caster sugar
4 small cups if water
3 cinnamon sticks
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tspn ground ginger
1 tspn or so of citric acid powder for baking (or aka tartaric acid - it adds acidity to baking / cooking)

Mix sugar & water in small pot until all dissolved, recommend medium heat. Wouldn't want it to boil over. Add the spices (ginger & cinnamon). Carefully add the lemon juice as this will cause the contents to froth/boil up quickly so maintain low heat. Add citric acid if you like a little bit more tarty than sugary.

Leave on low-medium heat until syrup thickens a little more. Remove from heat, allow to cool and the pour into a large container to store in fridge. Chilled overnight is best!

Next day:
Prepare dough with following:
4 cups of self raising flour (for equivalent plain flour use 2 tspn of baking powder to rise - this will mean leavin dough to rise for 2-3rs)
70g or 4 tbspn of butter
2 eggs
1 cup of water or milk (I used milk for a creamier dough, also if using plain flour this allows it rise better)

Sifting of plain flour & baking powder is required. You can do that for the self raising but I lime the easier way out and just went ahead. Rub butter & flour together, will become slightly crumbly but won't have formed together. Should have no clumps of butter.

If using water, whisk eggs into water and pour in gradually and mix in to flour by hand.

I was lazy and just cracked the eggs in & poured in a cup of milk. Result the dough was slightly too gooey to start with and I had to wait for it rise any way cause I rushed it.

The rolling out to flat sheet and cutting into long 5cm x 10m pcs. Cut each pc twice more, slice length wise but not through the top. You should now have each pc as 3 strands joint at the top. Braid these, practice makes perfect by the end of the batch you'll be an expert. Don't worry about stuffing up, just roll up the deformed braid into a dough ball and start again ;)

Prepare deep fryer with oil, heat up to 180*C, test with a clove or small bit of the dough. Prepare plate with pan toasted sesames. And we're ready to roll.

The frying process - since I had a small fryer I had to do bathed of 8-10. Fry til golden brown, drain oil. Then dunk in syrup, drain from syrup, toss/cover in sesame.

Sesame is optional. The koeksister reminds me of the Tianjing mahua (麻花). So I added the sesame, taste is vaunted different. The following website is in Chinese, when I find an English version of the recipe I'll add or try it out :)

http://www.meishichina.com/Eat/Magic/201003/77981.html