Pumpkin Soup

{image and recipe by SunBeam}

Recipe

3kg pumpkin
2 tablespoon olive oil
40g butter
2 large onions, chopped
2 litres chicken stock
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup cream or sour cream to serve (optional)

Method

1. Remove skin and seeds from pumpkin and cut into even sized chunks.

2. Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add onions and cook 1-2 or until onions have softened.  Add pumpkin and cook for a further 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook, covered for 30 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

3. Using the blender, process until smooth.

4. Reheat until soup is hot.  Serve with cream and extra ground black pepper if desired.

Taste of the sea; Lobster Bisque

... Knocked my head on a sink today and it hurts really bad, I cried for 15 min. Now I have swollen eyes and a duck egg size of a bump on my forehead *cries* so I cooked something to comfort myself - Lobster Bisque...

recipe adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients

• 1 large lobster
• 1 medium onion
• 1 celery rib
• 1 carrot
• 1 tomato
• 1 head garlic
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs chopped fresh tarragon leaves
• 2 tbs chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1 bay leaf
• 8 black peppercorns
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 1/2 cup dry Sherry
• 4 cups fish stock
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons water

Method

1. Fill a big pan with 3/4 full with salted water and bring to a boil. Put lobster into water and cook, covered, over high heat 8 minutes. 

2. Transfer lobster with tongs to a large bowl and in a measuring cup reserve 2 cups cooking liquid. 

3. Chop onion, celery, carrot, and tomato and halve garlic head crosswise. In a big pan heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté reserved lobster shells and body, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes. 

4. Add vegetables, garlic, herbs, peppercorns, brandy, and Sherry and simmer, stirring, until almost all liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add stock and reserved cooking liquid. Simmer mixture, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

5. Pour mixture through a fine sieve into a large saucepan, pressing on and discarding solids. Whisk in tomato paste and simmer until reduced to about 3 cups, about 10 minutes. 6. Add cream and simmer bisque 5 minutes. In a small bowl stir together cornstarch and water and whisk into bisque. 

7. Simmer bisque, stirring, 2 minutes. (Bisque will thicken slightly.) Season bisque with salt and pepper.

Comfort Food; Scrambled Prawn and Mushroom Consomme

Ingredients

To Clarify the Stock 

Cold prawn stock
200g tuna, skinless, diced
200g skinless white fish, diced
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
10 egg whites


Seafood Garnishes
3 prawns peeled 
1 shitake mushroom, thinly sliced

1 small bunch of enoki mushroom

Scrambled Eggs

2 eggs

a dash of cream

a pinch of pepper

a handful of chopped coriander

1 tablespoon of olive oil

Method

Clarifying the Stock
1. Process carrot, celery, tuna and snapper. Add egg whites and process until smooth. 
2. Add the mixture to the cold prawn stock. Put onto low heat and slowly bring up to a simmer – the vegetable and fish mixture will form a solid layer on top of the stock as the protein from the egg sets. This takes out any impurities from the stock. Simmer for half an hour then strain through muslin-lined colander into another stock pan. 

Garnishes

3.  Reheat 2 cups of clarified stock and keep the remaining in a tupperware for future use.

4. Once boiled, add the mushrooms and prawns until prawns turn pink.

To cook

5. Cook scrambled egg according to my previous scrambled egg method.

6. To serve, put a piece of scrambled egg into a bowl and spoon some of the mushrooms and prawns.

7. Spoon over some of the consommé and top with a sprig of chervil/thyme.

Sunday Afternoon Food; Tea Crusted Cream Snapper with Tea Scented Consomme

{images: photography by patrick demarchelier}

. . . relaxing sunday morning and the golden april sun has filled the air with a million possibilities and it is in these quiet moments, between sleep and awake, that dreams and thoughts intermingle  . . .

Ingredients

To Clarify the Stock 
2 litres cold chicken stock

1 onion, quartered

1 red onion, quartered

1 stalk of celery, chopped to 4 parts.
1kg chicken mince
5 egg whites

To Cook
4 pieces of daikon about 6cm long, cut into batons 
5 cream snapper fillets, portioned into small pieces 
chinese tea leaf blended with a pinch of cracked blackpeppercorn, a pinch of kosher salt and 1 teaspoon of palm sugar

Olive oil for pan frying

Clarified stock  consommé
2 chinese tea leaf bags 
(I used Pu Er but feel free to substitute with your favourite tea)

4 shitake mushrooms, sliced thinly

Method

To Clarify the Stock
1. Combine chicken mince and egg whites in a bowl. 
2. Add the mixture and stock ingredients to the chicken stock, put onto low heat and slowly bring up to a simmer – the mixture will form a solid layer on top of the stock as the protein from the egg sets. This takes out any impurities from the stock. Simmer for half an hour then strain through muslin-lined colander into another stock pan. 

To Cook

1. Poach daikon in a large saucepan of boiling water until just tender but still has a crunch. Drain. Transfer to a dish and cover to keep warm.
2. Dip the fish pieces, skin-side down into the ground tea mixture.
3. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook three pieces of fish, skin-side down, turning for 3-4 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a tray. Repeat with remaining fish. Cover to keep warm.

To Serve
poached daikon
extra virgin olive oil
cooked flathead pieces
picked chervil sprigs (or thyme)

1. Re-heat the clarified stock and add tea bags. Steep for 1-2 minutes and using a kitchen spoon, remove tea bags from consommé.
2. Spoon some of the daikon among serving plates and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Spoon some of the tea consomme, Add 2 pieces of fish and topped with sprigs of chervil.

Taste of the sea; Gout de la Mer

... The lure of the Ocean is always intoxicating -- the salty air , the rise and the fall of crashing waves, seaglass, scallop shells and starfish, and magical sea aroma..

Ingredients

Gout de la Mer

2 tablespoons olive oil
40g unsalted butter

1 yellow onion quartered
3 cloves garlic, halved

1 big red shallot, quartered
2 long red chillis, chopped at an angle
8 king prawns, heads removed, peeled and butter flied  

1 tablespoon of white cooking wine

1 stick of celery, chopped
4 beef tomatoes quartered and roughly chopped 

500ml fish stock
2cm ginger halved
200g firm white fish fillet, cubed
8 mussels, washed and debearded
 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 

1 tablespoon of fish stock

1 teaspoon of palm sugar

1 tablespoons cream
½  lemon, cut into wedges

Method 

1. Heat oil and butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add garlic, shallot, onion, chillis and prawn heads and sweat until opaque. Stir in tomato, celery and white cooking wine. Pour in stock and bring to the boil. Remove prawn heads.
2. Pour in ginger, prawns, fish and mussels and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 3 - 5 minutes or until fish is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. To serve, ladle soup into serving bowls, drizzle with cream and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with lemon to the side.

Sunday Afternoon food; Chicken and Vegetable Pho

{images: coffee table from french bedroom company via lynn}  ♥

. . . after friday and saturday's crazy partying, sundays are often time for a luxuriously languid morning or to nurse your hangover. This dish is one of my favourite Hangover food. Super easy and healthy chicken and vegetable pho and it only takes 30 min to prepare. Simultaneously light and fresh and deep and rich, pho is great all year round. 

So what's your hangover cure (aside from pepp)? 

Ingredients

Broth Infusion

1kg chicken wings

2 litres chicken stock 

1 small onion, cut in half

1 stalk celery, chopped 

2 cloves garlic

4 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

1 stalk coriander

1 cinnamon quill

2 star anise

a small piece of ginger, halved

1/2 of a big red chilli, thinly sliced

3 pieces of coriander root

2 tablespoon fish sauce

a pinch of black pepper

1 tablespoons yuzu ponzu

Juice of half a lime

Pho Vegetables

1 packet of dried pho 

1/2 carrot, julienned

1/4 red capsicum, finely sliced

8 snow peas, julienned

1 handful bean sprouts 

2 fresh shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 small bunch enoki mushrooms 

1 stalk of spring onion, thinly sliced

Squeeze of lime juice, to serve

2 sprigs Vietnamese mint, to garnish

3 sprigs coriander, to garnish

1/4 red chilli, finely sliced to garnish

Method 

1. For soup broth, boil chicken wings for 10 min. Place all ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to the boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Skim the fat from the top as required. Strain stock through a fine sieve and discard solids. Season to taste with fish sauce, yuzu ponzu and lime juice.

2. To serve, layer pho ingredients into a serving bowl and gently pour over 300ml of broth infusion. Garnish with lime juice, mint, coriander and chilli.