Squid and Prawn Linguine with Lime and Basil

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Monsieur Wag

The lightness in this dish comes from the Asian inspired flavours and the very obvious lack of a thick tomato or creamy sauce. The squid and prawns are cooked quickly so that the squid is meltingly tender but it is the lime that is the star of the dish. I wring the lime out so that each and every last drop makes it in to the dish. It would not even be too much to add the zest as well.

The squid should hit a hot pan and be off the heat in one minute. Any longer, and it will be like a rubber tyre. You could certainly add unshelled prawns to this dish for a dramatic touch, but I feel doing so can diminish the squid and throw the dish out of scale. And the whole point of pasta is comfort. I don’t want to be ripping through prawns when a bowl of comfort is served.

200g fresh or dried linguine pasta
200g fresh squid, scored and sliced into 2-3cm squares
100g fresh raw (uncooked) prawns
1 lime, juice (the zest is optional), plus 1 extra for wedges to serve
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper, cracked
1 small bunch of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn
2 tbsp. pasta water (reserved from the cooking)

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and when it is rolling, add the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, prepare your ingredients and have them ready to go.

In the final few minutes of the pasta cooking, place a large pan on the heat. Toss the squid pieces in vegetable oil and add the garlic and chili. Leave them to sizzle for 30 seconds then turn them over and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove the squid from the pan and set the pieces aside on a plate. Add the prawns to the pan and cook them until they are the familiar coral pink. At this point, the pasta should be cooked. Remove the pasta and the pan with the cooked prawns from the heat.

Reserve 2 tbsp. of the pasta water. Drain the remaining water from the pasta. Add the pasta to the pan with the prawns. Add the squid and half the torn basil. Don’t place the pan back on the heat. The heat from the pan, pasta and water will be enough to keep the momentum going. If you return the pan to the heat, you’ll scramble the egg yolk

Add the egg yolks and reserved pasta water and sea salt to season. Work quickly to toss the pasta so that the egg does not scramble. Add the lime juice (and the zest) and continue to toss the pasta

Serve the pasta with the remainder of the torn basil scattered across the top. Drizzle the olive oil across the top.

Season with liberal amounts of cracked black pepper and a wedge of lime.

Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts with Preserved Lemon Sauce

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Monsieur Wag

Cooking chicken breasts can be fraught with dry danger. There is a very fine line between moist and tender, and dry and tough. In other recipes, I use chicken thighs because the brown meat is always moist and it has a much richer taste. But, when I do cook the breast meat, I opt for searing heat on the stove and then into the oven for the bulk of the cooking. This way always gives me a moist and tender fillet.

I begin by letting the pan heat up to searing hot and I never add oil to the pan. I massage a very small amount of oil into the flesh and leave it at that. Even though chicken breasts are very lean, there is a small layer of fat just under the skin, which is drawn from the flesh during the cooking. I would recommend avoiding skinless breasts, there is a discernable difference.

I use vermouth in this sauce because I love the way it complements the chicken and the lemon. But you can use a dry white wine if you have it a hand. And the best thing about making the sauce it that it forces you to let the chicken rest for a good while. Letting the meat rest is crucial for a moist tender dish. You can of course omit the sauce or change it completely to suit your tastes.

2 Chicken fillets with skin on, and brought to room temperature for ½ hour
1 quarter segment of preserved lemon, very finely diced
1 tbs dried thyme
1 spring onion (scallions), sliced very finely
50-60mls extra-dry vermouth
30g butter
Sea salt
Black pepper
Vegetable oil

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C

Rub the chicken fillets with a very small amount of vegetable oil, and season with sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper and the dried thyme.

Place an ovenproof pan on high heat, and allow it to reach smoking hot. Place the chicken fillets on the hot pan with skin side down. Add the preserved lemon and leave the fillets to sear without turning them. When the skin is a nutty golden brown, turn the fillets over and place the pan in the hot oven. Set the timer for 7 minutes.

After the first seven minutes, turn the chicken fillets over, at which point the skin side should be face down and continue to roast in the oven for further 7 minutes.

Prepare a plate with aluminum foil.

Remove the chicken from the pan and place them directly on the foil and wrap them tightly. Leave them to rest for a final 7 minutes.

Place the pan on a medium heat and deglaze the pan with the vermouth (or dry white wine). Add the spring onions and continue to stir. When the vermouth has reduced by half, add the butter and reduce the heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the chicken fillets and spoon the sauce over the top. Serve with vegetables or salad.

Baked ricotta with caramelised pear and walnut

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

Baked ricotta is a great dish to cook and because ricotta has a mild flavour, you can compliment it with any number of ingredients – savoury or sweet. Although it is not technically a cheese, it still behaves like one, which means you can serve it in its place or with other cheeses on a board.

There are many recipes for baked ricotta and there a lot of options you could use. Some recipes add egg in to the mix, but I find it gives a more solid, congealed result. You can leave the egg out which gives a more crumbly texture, but I believe it is more pleasant to eat.

This recipe is intended to serve with a glass of wine and crusty bread, so I have used ingredients that complement wine – such as pear and walnuts. You could also use orange and raisin, or lemon and thyme.

250g fresh soft ricotta
1 pear, pealed, cored and finely diced
50g crushed walnuts
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
extra honey and olive oil

Pre heat the oven to 160°C. Generously wipe a small baking dish (approx. 10x5cm) with oil.

Gently toss the diced pear in a pan over a medium heat. When the pear pieces begin to caramelise, turn the heat off but leave the pan on the stove. Add the walnuts, olive oil and the honey and gently toss the pear to coat each piece. The heat of the pan should be enough to coat each piece of pear without burning the honey or the walnuts.

In a mixing bowl, add the caramelised pear and walnuts to the ricotta and gently mix until it is well combined and smooth.

Spoon the ricotta mixture into the prepared baking dish. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the ricotta is firm and beginning to caramelise.

Remove it from the oven and drizzle with an extra amount of honey and olive oil. Set it aside to cool. Serve at room temperature with crusty bread and wine. You can drizzle more olive oil across the top before serving if you prefer.

Pizza

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

There are plenty of rules in cooking, but not in pizza recipes. Just follow your stomach. I have included the ingredients that I used to make this pizza, but you can ignore or use them at your pleasure.

For the base, I have used the sourdough recipe that I wrote about some time ago. Just be a little more generous with the olive oil and the salt, and the sourdough makes a great pizza base. You can make it as thin or as thick as you like – a feature in pizzas that seems to split eaters into two camps.

For the pizza base
200g sourdough starter
400g flour (bakers or strong)
200ml warm tap water
20g sea salt

Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and bring them together using a clean hand. When the mixture has roughly combined, turn it on to a clean work surface and knead for approximately 15-20 minutes. Test the texture of the dough by taking a small ball of dough and stretch it out to make a window between your fingers. The texture is ideal if you can form a window in the dough without tearing it. If you can see the silhouette of your fingers through the thin dough window, it is right. If it tears, keep kneading until you reach this point.

Place the dough in a large bowl lightly wiped with olive oil, cover with cling film and leave it to prove in a warm spot for at least two hours. When the dough has tripled in size, turn it out onto a clean surface and punch the air out.

Divide the dough into even portions. Take each portion, one at a time, and fold it into thirds. Then stretch it out again and fold it into thirds again. Then shape the dough in to the classic pizza shape. Place the dough on to a lined baking tray. Repeat the process until you have used all the dough.

Return the dough back to the same warm place in the kitchen for a second prove for about an hour.

When it is time to make the pizza, pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Allow the oven to heat for about 10 minutes to ensure it is hot.

For the topping
1 cup good quality tomato passata
100g grilled eggplant / aubergine slices
100g grilled capsicum slices
100g pancetta
100g buffalo mozzarella
Fresh rosemary
Sea salt and pepper

Add the ingredients so the top of your pizza. Take care not to be too generous or you will end up with a soggy base. I tear buffalo mozzarella into small chunks and scatter them across the top – it is a much better version than grated cheese.

When the oven is ready, place the pizzas in to the middle of the oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

Sourdough Bread

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

Several months ago, I forgot to feed my sourdough starter and two weeks later it was dead. While it was in the fridge it was a case of ‘out of sight and out of mind”, clearly needing more love than I was capable of giving it at the time. After a brief period of regretful mourning, I prepared another starter. But this time was different.

I breathed life into my new sourdough starter using the same principles as outlined in an earlier blog. I start with 50g of flour and 50ml of water on day one. The following day I added 100g of flour and 100ml of water. On day three I added another 200g of flour and 200ml of water. On day four I took 50g of the beginning starter, discarded the rest and started again, adding 50g of four and 50mls of water. I repeated the cycle for well over six weeks in an attempt to get a really strong yeast culture. What I found was that the yeast culture flourished and the starter took on a life of its own. It had the classic aroma of bread yeast and the bubbles in the mixture were stronger and larger than before.

I leave my starter out of the fridge. It lives in a plastic container and I give it some food and water on most days. If I miss a day, it’s not big problem.

The rules of sourdough bread making tell you to prepare and knead the bread the evening before and allow the second prove to take place overnight. But I found the yeast in my culture was too strong and on several occasions the dough had over-proved by morning leaving the bread flat and shapeless. So I played around and through trial and error, dramatically reduced the proving time to four hours.

The other trick I have found is to use the oven for proving. If you have a setting on the oven that lets you take the temperature right down to 30°C or 40°C, use it. It is much more stable and has given me a reliable result every time.

400g sourdough starter
800g flour (bakers or strong)
400ml warm tap water
20g sea salt
Semolina flour, approximately 1 cup.

Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and bring them together using a clean hand. When the mixture has roughly combined, turn it on to a clean work surface and knead for approximately 15-20 minutes. (If your kitchen bench or the room is cool, you may need to add 5 minutes.) You should not need to dust your bench or workspace with flour. If you find the dough is too wet, just add a small amount of flour to the mixture. But try to avoid this if you can. There is a distinct moment while kneading when you can feel the dough relax. It often occurs in the last five minutes. It will depend on the warmth of your kitchen, your hands and the work surface.

Test the texture of the dough by taking a small ball of dough and stretch it out to make a window between your fingers. The texture is ideal if you can form a window in the dough without tearing it. If you can see the silhouette of your fingers through the thin dough window, it is right. If it tears, keep kneading until you reach this point.

Divide the dough into even portions. Take each portion, one at a time, and fold it into thirds. Then stretch it out again and fold it into thirds again. Then shape the dough in to your desired shape, be it a loaf or individual bread rolls. Place the dough on to a lined baking tray. Repeat the process until you have used all the dough.

With a very sharp knife cut the surface of each ball in whatever configuration you like*. Generously sprinkle the semolina flour across the top of the rolls. Return the dough back to the same warm place in the kitchen for a second prove. Leave it for about 2 hours.

When it is time to bake the bread, pre-heat the oven to 250°C. Allow the oven to heat for about 10 minutes to ensure it is hot.

Bake the bread for about 20-25 minutes. To test if the bread has baked, remove it from the oven and tap the base – if it sounds hollow, it is done. Turn the bread out onto a cooling rack.

*You can make Turkish bread (or pide) with the same process. To shape the bread before the second proving, just use your finger tips to press the dough outward into a flat shape. I glug a few teaspoons of olive oil across the top, followed by some sea salt and some fresh rosemary leaves. You could also add crushed garlic if you preferred. I leave it to prove and then bake it in the same way as above.

Cheddar Cheese and Spring Onion Cornbread

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

Cornbread is enjoying a resurgence at the moment with the ‘tex-mex’ theme that is gaining popularity. Its texture is one that can handle almost any flavour you can throw at it which means you can be as inventive as you like. Any spicy seasoning or flavour can be removed or added to this recipe to match your taste.

If you want heat, add chili, if you want more aromatics, just stir them in. But the worst thing you can do to cornbread is leave it bereft of any flavour at all. It is naturally dry so don’t serve it bland – it just won’t work. Saucy dishes or soups are an ideal partner at the table.

In this recipe I worked on the basis of cheese and onion and added the seasonings that lift it higher, such as cumin and nutmeg. Don’t hold back on the salt or pepper either.

350g polenta (or cornmeal)
75g plain flour
4 eggs
250ml milk
150g cheddar cheese, grated
4 spring onions, finely spliced
1 tsp olive oil, plus extra for the spring onions
1tsp baking powder
Nutmeg, pinch
Cinnamon, pinch
Cumin, pinch
Sea salt and cracked black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C and prepare a 20cm cake tin by lining the base with backing paper or silicon.

Sauté the spring onions in a small amount of oil until they are caramelized and set them aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, add the polenta, plain flour, spices and baking powder. Add the eggs, milk, olive oil, cooled spring onions and half of the cheddar cheese. Mix until all the ingredients are combined.

Spoon the mixture in to the prepared cake tin and sprinkle the remaining cheddar cheese across the top. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Remove it from the cake tin and allow it to cool for a few minutes. Cut a wedge and serve with butter. Your favourite tomato relish would make a delicious accompaniment.

Chicken Liver Pâté

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

I was deterred from eating liver at very early age following a few grim encounters. On one occasion, I vividly recall telling my Nanna that I hated liver. She corrected me quickly and sternly told me that I had not eaten her version. I told her that it was in fact her dish that I last ate and hated. And so, my aversion was firmly imprinted and I refused to eat anything liverish for a very long time.

As I have often written throughout this blog, my core rule of thumb is to try everything at least once. And just because you hated it as a child does not mean you will still hate it. My advice is to try it again. So, it follows that when I tried chicken liver pâté again, I discovered that I loved it.

The most important piece of advice is to not over cook the livers. You must watch the clock and check the colour as you go. The livers must still be blushing pink. If you over cook them, the resulting pâté will be grainy and unpleasant. You can also replace the chicken with duck livers, or you can mix half and half. You can also change the herbs and seasoning to make your own flavour.

100g chicken livers, fresh
100g butter, cubed
1 shallot, finely diced
1 garlic clove, finely sliced or crushed
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
1 tbs port
2 tbs brandy
olive oil
Sea salt and pepper
100g butter, extra for the top layer
1 tbs fresh parsley
Cracked pepper, extra

Place the chicken livers, shallot and garlic in a hot pan with the olive oil. Sauté the livers for about four minutes. It is critical to make sure the livers are still pink inside. Remove the livers from the pan and set them aside, leaving the shallot and garlic to continue sautéing in the pan.

Add the thyme, port and brandy. Gently scrape the pan juices together to make sure all the caramelized flavours are incorporated. Remove the pan from the heat.

Place the livers together with the shallot, garlic, port and brandy reduction in to the bowl of a food processor. Blitz the ingredients for a few minutes. Continue blitzing and add the butter cube-by-cube, ensuring each cube melts into the forming pâté before adding the next. Season generously with salt and pepper. Taste the mixture to make sure there is enough seasoning.

Pour the pâté into a small ramekin or serving dish, cover it with cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Slowly melt the extra 100g of butter in a small saucepan. When the white milk solids rise to the top, remove the saucepan from the heat for a few minutes. Line the inside of a strainer with a few layers of muslin cloth and place it over a clean heatproof jug. Pour the melted butter through the muslin cloth and strainer. Remove and discard the milk solids in the cloth.

Place the clean dry fresh herbs on top of the pâté and gently pour the clarified butter on the top to the depth of at least one centimetre. Season generously with freshly cracked black pepper. Cover and return the pâté to the fridge for a few hours to allow the butter to solidify.

Once the butter has set, it is ready to serve.

Brussels Sprout and Chilli Linguine

Posted on April 15, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

Arguably, the most hated food would have to be brussels sprouts. I think most people who hate the little green cabbages will have tried them as a child and have never let go of the memory. I would even go as far as suggesting that most people can recall when they took their first mouthful. I remember my mum tricking me into thinking it was a tiny cabbage, and because I liked cabbage, it seemed logical that I would like these little varieties. It turned out that I did not, and in the process, I had lost a small part of the trust in anything my mum had to say about what food I would like!

Many people probably hate sprouts because they have a bitter component that children naturally find unpleasant but that we slowly adapt to as adults. But I wonder if the reason they are hated is because we have all been exposed to the dreaded boiled version, and even I still hate them boiled. It seems water brings out the worst possible flavours and rinses the delicious ones away. Yes, there are delicious flavours in brussels sprouts. You just have to know how to tease them out. I think caramelising is the best way of bring out the best in sprouts. Of course adding other ingredients helps as well.

I think brussels sprouts should be given another chance. They are the much maligned vegetable that we often over look and I think they should be brought back to the table.

250g fresh or dried linguine
200g brussels sprouts
1/2 brown onion, chopped finely
1-2 tsp dried chilli flakes
50ml white wine
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

Bring a small pot of salted water to the boil for the brussels sprouts. Cut the base stem from each sprout and cut them in half or quarters, depending on their size. Plunge them into the boiling water and let them simmer away for a few minutes until their colour is vibrant green. Remove and drain them for a few minutes to remove any water.

Bring another large pot of salted water to the boil and drop the linguine in, keeping the water rolling along.

In a large saucepan sauté the onion in the olive oil. When the onion is translucent, add the brussels sprouts. Sauté the sprouts and onion until they are evenly caramelised. Add the chilli flakes and the white wine.

Drain the linguine but keep a good splash of the remaining cooking water and add it to the pan with the sprouts. Add the linguine and toss all the ingredients together. Season well with salt and pepper.

Transfer the linguine to a serving plate. Garnish with fresh parsley and finely sliced chilli.

Salade Niçoise

Posted on March 24, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

I can’t help but come to the conclusion that there is more debate about this recipe than any other. Not mine per se, but in general. There seems to be an argument for and against each ingredient and when there is consensus, there is debate about its type or preparation. Lettuce is a good example. Many cooks argue passionately about its inclusion. And if you do decide to included lettuce, should it be cos or iceberg? This makes finding the original recipe almost impossible. The only true agreement and understanding is that you use tinned tuna and that it is the most famous salad from Nice, France.

So, what makes a good Salade Niçiose? It can be deconstructed (which is the culinary word of the moment) where each element is segmented; or it can be lovingly mixed where all the ingredients are brought together in balanced harmony. I prefer the mixed version so that each mouthful I take represents the entire dish. I want to eat the Salade Niçose as it was intended, not in neatly placed sections of the plate as if it were a piece of abstract art. I want the egg to break up and enrich the dressing and nourish the tuna, lettuce, beans and tomatoes.

Here is my definition of a good dish: if you want to eat it when it is placed in front of you then it is a good one. If you’d happily go back for more, then it is a great one.

150g long green beans, topped and never tailed.
4 hard boiled eggs – it is up to you if you like the yolk hard or soft
250g tuna, tinned and oil based – don’t discard the oil.
100g baby roma tomatoes, sliced in half
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 baby cos lettuce, washed and dried
a good handful of marinated black olives, preferably pipped

Dressing
1 garlic clove
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs verjuice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2-3 anchovy fillets
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil the eggs for 6-8 minutes and let them cool for a few minutes before peeling the shells. Cut them into quarter segments. Place the beans in simmering salted water until their green colour is vibrant and fresh. Drain and place them to one side.

Rub the serving bowl with the peeled clove of garlic.

Add the olive oil and anchovy fillets to a large mixing bowl. Use a fork to mix the two together, breaking up the fillets to a smooth paste. Add the mustard and verjuice and mix well, seasoning with salt and pepper. Remember the anchovies will be salty, so taste as you go.

Place the cos lettuce, beans, tomatoes, eggs, tuna, olives and spring onions in the bowl on top of the dressing. Use you very clean dry hands to gently toss the ingredients, delving into the dressing and bringing it to the top of the dish.

Transfer the salad to the serving bowl rubbed with garlic and take it to the table.

Chicken and Prawn Paella

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Monsieur Wag

Telling someone you have a recipe for paella will inevitably evoke the question, “is it an authentic one?” Yet, the recognised expert on paella, Alberto Herraiz, says there is no such thing. Over hundreds of years, Paella recipes have evolved and varied with enormous variations in ingredients and techniques. So over time, each version becomes a story of the region and the family cooking at home – inevitably documenting history in a recipe.

Knowing this point is important because it frees us to learn from past recipes and take confident steps toward making our own new ones. This means we can learn the basic rules of a good paella and then break a few to reshape the recipe to our own taste; telling a new story. For this recipe, I have stayed true to the original paella technique because it needs no further perfection. But I have simplified the approach because I think we need less complexity in our kitchen and simplicity is the best way to go about something.

Here are my tips for a good paella. Prepare all your ingredients and have them ready to go. A good paella pan does not have to be an expensive one, just an authentic one and avoid the non-stick variety. A good paella has a crust on the base, so don’t stir the ingredients once the stock has been added.

400ml chicken stock, good quality
350g chicken thighs, diced
300g prawns, fresh and raw
200g paella rice
100g tomato puree
100g chorizo, sliced into 1/2cm segments
1 red capsicum, whole
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
100g peas
100g beans, sliced into 5cm segments
Spanish Paprika (smokey) (I use La Chinata)
6-8 saffron threads
Olive oil
Sea Salt and pepper.

Place the whole red capsicum on a naked flame to scorch the skin. Rotate until all sides are done then remove from the heat and set it aside. When the capsicum has cooled completely, rub the black skin from the flesh and then slice the flesh into small segments.

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Measure out all the ingredients and set them aside ready for use. Bring the stock to a gentle simmer.

Place the paella pan on the heat and add the oil, onion and garlic. Add the chicken and chorizo. When the chicken is brown, add the paella rice and stir the grains gently until they are coated in the oil.

As soon as the outer hull of the rice becomes translucent, add the tomato paste and stir into the rice quickly. Then add the paprika and saffron threads followed by the capsicum, beans, peas and prawns evenly across the top of the rice. Pour the hot stock over the rice, but once the stock has been added, do not stir the ingredients at all.

Let the pan bubble for 6 minutes on a medium heat then place the pan in the oven and cook for a further 14 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow it to rest for 4 to 5 minutes. I like to cover the pan with aluminium foil to keep it hot.

Take the pan to the table and serve.

MONSIEUR WAG

Home food from my kitchen

Tag Archives: Olive oil