Tim Ferriss’ Osso “Buko” from the 4 Hour Chef

March 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The 4 Hour Chef is a really catchy title, which immediately makes you think that you can learn to be a chef in 4 hours, but the books is not about that. More on this later.

It’s Tim Ferriss’ latest best selling book. It has 14 carefully chosen meals each using only 4 ingedients and they all take just 5-20 minutes to prepare.  If that has not grabbed you yet, each of those meals are compliant with a Slow Carb diet or even a Paleo diet.

Some people who have been following this way of eating have lost 20 lbs in a month from just following these recipes and not even thinking about a diet. Well I don’t have 20 lbs to lose but maybe 10 lbs, then I can fit into those model sample dresses.

So what this book is really about is Meta Learning where you learn to mimic the world’s fastest learner and in his own words,  “a choose your own adventure book”. He says that he has crammed in 6 months worth of culinary school learning into 48 hours. A total of 4 hours is needed to cook all the 14 dishes and with the skill and knowledge gained, this gives you the basis to tackle thousands of other recipes. All of the recipes are designed so that you don’t need a lot of fancy kitchen equipment and can be done on a low budget.

This book is not about cooking, it’s about mastering life. So armed with the skills learnt using cooking as the skill to learn, I can apply that to meta learn anything like how to speak fluent Spanish in 8 weeks.

I was just so intrigued to try out the recipes so I picked this one : The Osso “Buko” a play on the famous Italian Osso Bucco made with veal shanks. In his recipe which you can see here, he uses lamb shanks.

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Tim Ferris’ Osso “Buko” from the 4 Hour Chef

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

4

Tim Ferris’ Osso “Buko” from the 4 Hour Chef

Very easy lamb stew dish, takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and off the bone lamb appears after 2 hours.

Ingredients

  • 4 Lamb shanks
  • 5 cloves garlis or garlic powder
  • bunch of carrots
  • can of tomatoes
  • half bottle of white wine
  • salt and pepper
  • Some Extra Virgin olive oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180C
  2. Peel carrots ( he says to scrub them with a course scourer part of the sponge) He doesn't even chop them but places them whole at the bottom of a heavy pan. In the US they use a Dutch oven. I just used my Le Creuset.
  3. Place lamb shanks on top of the carrots (no browning before hand)
  4. Pour in a can of tomatoes. (He says to crush the tomatoes by hand into the pan, I just cut them up in the can before pouring.)
  5. Put in peeled garlic
  6. Pour in wine until it reaches 1/3 to 1/2 way up the pot
  7. Add salt and lots of pepper
  8. Cook covered in the oven for 2 hours
  9. Serve with more vegetables if you are doing the Slow Carb or Paleo diet or some crushed potatoes would be a nice accompaniment

Notes

Improvements to the recipe that I would make 1. Brown the meat on all sides before putting into the pan 2. Add some onions to recipe, soften them in a bit of oil before adding any other ingredient 3. Maybe subsitute the white wine with some red wine to give the meat and the resulting sauce a bit more colour 4. I would also reduce the sauce down a bit before serving as it was quite liquid. After reduction, the sauce was a lot richer. Delicious.

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/tim-ferriss-osso-buko-from-the-4-hour-chef/

I like recipes like this, minimal fuss, easy to prepare and quite tasty too. I’ll be trying a few of this other recipes soon.

You can get The 4 Hour Chef book from Amazon.

 

 

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Festive Chocolate Gingerbread Brownies

November 30, 2012 By 3 Comments

So this year, Vanessa Kimball has organised for Rococo Chocolates to host her Let’s Make Christmas gift swap.

The idea is that you make something according to the theme and bring it along to be entered into a competition. Then you pick a gift from all the goodies that have been brought along while having some tea, mulled wine and lovely baked goods for tea.

This year’s theme was chocolate so we had to make something with Chocolate in it or to make something from Chantal Coady’s book, Rococo: Mastering the Art of Chocolate which is a stunning book with lots of innovative recipes using chocolate but not in the usual way. There are goats cheese chocolate ganaches, savoury chocolate biscuits and even a recipe for an Armenian lamb stew which looks amazing.

For the gift swap, I made some Chocolate Gingerbread Brownies which I thought were quite festive. As usual, I tweaked the recipe by adding a lot more of the ground ginger than recommended as I like the flavour to come through. Be warned, this recipe uses a lot of chocolate!

Let's Make Xmas

 

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Festive Chocolate Gingerbread Brownies

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Lots

Ingredients

  • 350g cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 285g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 275g cups packed light-brown sugar
  • 125g cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 75ml black treacle
  • 280g chocolate, cut into small chunks or use equivalent in chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Coat a 17-by-12-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
  2. Line bottom with parchment cut to fit, and coat parchment.
  3. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
  4. Beat butter and brown and granulated sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy.
  5. Add eggs and yolk, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
  6. Beat in vanilla and black treacle.
  7. Reduce speed to low.
  8. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined.
  9. Stir in chocolate.
  10. Spread batter into prepared pan.
  11. Bake until edges are golden, about 25 minutes.
  12. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
  13. Cut into squares.

Notes

These are very easy to make once you have all the ingredients. I used a smaller tin so my brownies were thicker than the recipe. If you use a bigger brownie thin, the batter will spread thinner and will cook faster.

Recipe inspired by Martha Stewart's White Chocloate Gingerbread Blondies

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/festive-chocolate-gingerbread-brownies/

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A Mediterranean Pasta with Fragata

October 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When you have abundant sunshine, the produce you get in the region is plentiful, colourful and delicious. The people from Fragata are running a competition to win a cooking day with Jose Pizarro of the Pizarro Restaurant in Bermondsey. They duly sent along a hamper with a selection of goodies like capers, black olives, green olives, Piri Piri peppers and I had to come up with a recipe or two from that selection.

Coming up with a dish that uses olives is not that easy as it really is best eaten out of the can with some flavourings like lemon rind, harissa or some other exotic combination. You shouldn’t really subject the olives to heat either as it loses its flavour.

As I was watching the latest Nigellisima programme, I saw Nigella demonstrating a very similar recipe, her Smoke Mackerel Pasta. This is really flexible and you can add as many or as few of the ingredients to add your own touch.

Fragata Olives

Here is the first one. I used Smoked Mackerel as it is my new favourite ingredient. So this dish is very European as it incorporates ingredients from the UK, Spain and Italy. Best of all, it takes no time at all to cook, all of about 15 mins. Give it a go.

 

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Smoked Mackerel Pasta with Piri Piri Peppers, Capers and Olives

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

2 or more

1 healthy portion

Smoked Mackerel Pasta with Piri Piri Peppers, Capers and Olives

Ingredients

  • Handful of dry pasta of choice ( I used spaghetti as I didn't have any linguine)
  • 3 shallots, sliced
  • Smoked Mackerel
  • 1 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp sliced olives
  • 1 tbsp piri piri peppers
  • some virgin rapeseed oil for frying
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Put a big pot of water to boil and add pasta when boiling. Put a timer on for 10 mins.
  2. Peel and slice the shallots. Fry them in some oil
  3. Meanwhile flake a fillet of Smoked Mackerel or any other smoked fish that you fancy
  4. When the shallots have softened but not brown, add in the fish, capers and the peppers.
  5. Stir it all to warm
  6. By this time your pasta should be ready, use a pasta ladel to transfer the pasta to the pan with the fish. Never pour your pasta out into a colander as the steam will overcook the pasta and you have lost all the cooking liquid which you need to add to make a sauce.
  7. Add a splash of the pasta water to the sauce and stir to loosen it up.
  8. Turn off the heat and add in the beautifully sliced black olives. Stir.
  9. Check the seasoning but watch the salt as all the ingredients have been soaking in brine.
  10. Serve and drizzle some lovely single estate olive oil.
  11. Enjoy.

Notes

As this recipe doesn't have to be precise, you can use as much or as little fish as you like. Everything else you can adjust to your own taste.

If I had some herbs I would have added some to the pasta for some colour.

You could also grate in some fresh tomato into the sauce as it's cooking to add yet another flavour of the Med.

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/a-mediterranean-pasta-with-fragata-olives/

Nigellissima Book

I have not reviewed this book yet but I have seen quite a few things on the programme that I want to try. I am not too bothered that it is not really Italian but I like her style of using Italian ingredients and creating recipes that are easy to recreate in our own kitchens. Nigella’s recipes are simple to make and they have always worked for me, so far. You can get her book at half price on Amazon.

 

Competition:

If you would like to win a chance to cook with Jose, check out the details here.

Fragata provided the Mediterranean ingredients for this dish.

 

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Trout Choo Chee Curry – Thai Fish Curry

August 9, 2012 By 8 Comments

In my attempt to eat more fish, I am trying out a lot of different fish recipes. I decided to work through some of my cook books which range from Italian to Thai to Modern British. Trying to come up something that is easy to cook and delicious is quite tricky sometimes.

When I read through recipes written by a French trained Michelin starred chefs, it sometimes leaves me baffled. They assume knowledge of cooking methods and the ability to make basic sauces, stocks, reductions, etc. My knowledge of these techniques are gleaned from watching cooking programmes and it’s really not the best way to learn. This means that a lot of potentially delicious recipes are just for ogling and not for cooking, especially not for a home cook like me.

Today, I resorted to a short cut Thai Fish Curry recipe instead. I found that my local Thai supermarket sold home made curry sauces so I bought a packet of Choo Chee Curry paste which is not dissimilar to Thai Red Curry. This is one of my favourite dishes although I don’t see it on many menus at Thai restaurants.

This is a shortcut as I used the ready made curry paste as I didn’t fancy making a vat of the stuff to keep in the fridge.

I bought some lovely Scottish Loch Trout Fillets to cook with my curry sauce. This recipe is one of my shortcuts to making a quick meal as you can cook the fish, curry sauce and rice all at the same time. A meal in 15 mins.

Print
Trout Choo Chee Curry – Thai Fish Curry

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

4

Asian sized servings as this is usually one of man

Trout Choo Chee Curry – Thai Fish Curry

A very quick and easy Thai Fish Curry dish using shop bought Choo Chee curry paste.

Ingredients

  • 1 packet Choo Chee Curry paste
  • 1 can coconut milk or make up equivalent with Coconut Milk Powder to
  • 500g Trout or Salmon, cut in large pieces
  • 1 tbsp Thai palm sugar
  • Thai fish sauce to taste as some curry paste are quite salty
  • 2-3 Kaffir Lime leaves, finely sliced (optional)
  • Some red chillies for garnish

Instructions

  1. Firstly, start by cooking some Thai Jasmine Rice. Follow the instructions on the pack.
  2. Cook the Choo Chee Curry Paste with the cocount milk, bring to boil and then reduce to simmer. You should cook it until the oil separates ( the red chilli oil will surface)
  3. Meanwhile, pan fry or grill the fish in an oiled pan. Don't be tempted to move the fish around, just let it fry untouched or the skin will come off and stick to the pan. (The Thai's like to deep fry the fish which gives it extra texture.) I like to keep the skin on the fish and fry it skin side down for about 5-6 minutes. This will crisp up the skin.
  4. Turn the fish after the 5-6 minutes and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, depending on thickness.
  5. When the fish is done, place onto the serving bowl and generously pour over the curry sauce.
  6. Garnish with some sliced chillies or coriander leaves.
  7. Serve hot with the boiled Jasmine rice.

Notes

Instead of Trout or Salmon, you can use any other fish that is in season although delicate white fish will be wasted on this dish as the flavour will be overwhelmed by the curry sauce. Some recipes tell you to put the fish in to cook with the sauce instead of pan frying. You can try this but I find the pan frying adds more flavour and texture.

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/trout-choo-chee-curry-thai-fish-curry/

To make this a more balanced meal, you can add a dish of stir fried greens or even a plate of blanched lettuce dressed with a drizzle of sesame oil and oyster sauce. This takes another 5 minutes. A 2 course meal in under 20 minutes! You can’t beat that.

As I am always looking for ways to minimise food shopping bills. I have found that you can get discounts for shopping online from MyVoucherCodes. For this recipe, I bought most of my ingredients online from the M&S site using these Marks and Spencer Voucher Codes.

 

 

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Chocolate Cheesecake with Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine

July 19, 2012 By 10 Comments

Baking, I don’t do it often enough and if I did, I would have to buy a new wardrobe. I do love baking though, not just the wonder of seeing a recipe come together but the lovely smells wafting through the flat.

This week I made a Chocolate Cheesecake. This was for a Bake Off bloggers’ challenge hosted by Russell Hobbs using their new “Creations Kitchen Machine”. This is a stand mixer that is in direct competiton to the more expensive ones on the market like KitchenAid and Kenwood.

Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine

The challenge was to use Chocolate and the theme was Summer Cakes.

Here is the Chocolate Cheesecake recipe I used from Lucy Cufflin’s book, Lucy’s Food. Her recipes are easy to follow and are very well tested.

Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine Chocolate Cheesecake

I used the Creations Kitchen Machine to mix up all the cream cheese mixture on the setting at #5 for about 5 minutes. I had to stop and scrape the bottom as all the cheese was stuck at the bottom. I probably shouldn’t have used the whisk extenstion as pictured here and should have used the mixer one. It also come with a dough hook for kneading bread which I shall be trying out next.

The Kitchen Machine is really straight forward to operate. Everything slots in intuitely and is easy to clean. I am very interested to find out what other attachments are available for this as I see some other places to plug things in.

Back to the cake, to fit the criteria of Summer Cakes, I served raspberries on top which not only looked stunning but also helped to counter the richness of the chocolate. All this was dusted with icing sugar which just makes everything a touch more professional, even though it’s not. It could have done with some pouring cream or ice cream too.

In the book, she suggested serving it with hot chocolate sauce too.

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Chocolate Cheesecake with Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

12 servings

Chocolate Cheesecake with Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine

Quick Chocolate Cheesecake recipe that looks a million dollars. Can be made gluten free by changing the base to use nuts, oats or any other substitutes.

Ingredients

  • 100g Butter
  • 200g chocolate digestives, crushed
  • 150 full fat cream cheese
  • 250g mascarpone
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 75g cocoa powder (not hot chocolate)
  • 6 eggs

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 175 C or 350F.
  2. Prepare a 20cm cake tin by lining it with baking parchment. (Note: I found that this size tin was too small, resulting in a thicker biscuit base and too much filling. Use one slightly larger than 20cm)
  3. Do this by cutting a circle about 10cm larger thatn the diameter of the tin. Fold around the edges and tuck it in. This will create a rustic border when the cake is cooked. Using the baking parchment, it makes the cake easy to remove from the tin. ( I made a it a big bigger so the paper was like a handle to remove the cake when cooked.)
  4. Crush the biscuits into crumbs in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix in the biscuit crumbs. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the tin with a big spoon to form an even layer.
  5. Put the other ingredients into your Creations Kitchen Machine and mix until smooth.
  6. Pour over the base.
  7. Bake in a preheated oven for 1- 11/2 hours or until the cheescake has risen and is wobbly/ set on top. It should be cracked and slightly crusty on top.
  8. Leave to cool for at least an hour.
  9. When it is cold, hold the paper and the tip of the tin slightly to remove the cheesecake. It is quite solid and will come out easily. Slide a baking sheet between the paper and the cheesecake and put on a serving plate or cake stand.
    10. To Serve
  10. Serve at room temperature dusted with icing sugar.

Notes

I decorated mine with raspberries. You can add a selection of summer fruits as well. Alternatively, serve it with pouring cream, ice cream or even chocolate sauce to make it more decadent.

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/chocolate-cheesecake-with-russell-hobbs-creations-kitchen-machine/

On the night of the judging, the cakes were presented:

Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine
The very serious judges

The judges took a lot of notes, tasted the creations and finally retired to another room to decide. It was quite Xfactor like.

The winner was Heide from Kitchen Secrets who made this amazing Chocolate Pecan cake with Maple Cream.

 

Russell Hobbs Creations Kitchen Machine

 The Russell Hobbs Creations Range will launch later this year and I was sent one for this challenge and to review.

 

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Fresh and Smoked Salmon Rillette

July 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This Salmon Rillettes recipe is quick and easy recipe and perfect as a starter for a dinner part. Serve with your choice of toasted bread.

This is one of the recipes we learnt from Paul Merrett at the Total Greek Masterclass.

 

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Fresh and Smoked Salmon Rillette

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 6 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

4 servings

Fresh and Smoked Salmon Rillette

Quick and delicious starter to wow your dinner party guests.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon of TOTAL Greek Yoghurt, Classic (2% can also be used)
  • 200g of fresh salmon
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • 60g of diced and softened unsalted butter
  • 1 dessert spoon of fresh dill, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons of horseradish relish
  • 75g of smoked salmon
  • Pepper
  • Wholemeal bread for toast

Instructions

  1. Place the fresh salmon in a small oven proof baking dish and wet the salmon with a dessert spoon of water.
  2. Cover the dish with foil and put it in an oven at 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 for about 6 minutes.
  3. When the salmon is cool, flake it into a bowl.
  4. Add the yoghurt, lemon juice, the softened butter (microwave), dill and horseradish – but don’t mix it all yet.
  5. Shred up the smoked salmon into strips and add this to the bowl.
  6. Finally add a twist of black pepper and then gently fold and mix everything together taking care not to break it all down to a mush.
  7. When everything is thoroughly combined, put into a serving dish and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.
  8. Serve with hot brown toast.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/fresh-and-smoked-salmon-rillette/

 

You can find more recipes that Paul created for the campaign using Total Greek here .

Paul Merret runs the Victoria Pub in East Sheen and you can follow him on twitter @PaulMerretChef

 

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Spiced Butternut Tagine with Roasted Pepper and Tomato & Toasted Fennel Seed Yoghurt

July 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This was the Vegetarian Butternut Squash Tagine we made at the Total Greek Masterclass. Personally, I would leave out the peppers and add some lamb and slow cook it til the meat is tender.

The spiced butternut squash that was fried were delicious to eat by itself.  You must try this.

Delicious.

 

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Spiced Butternut Tagine with Roasted Pepper and Tomato & Toasted Fennel Seed Yoghurt

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

4 servings

Spiced Butternut Tagine with Roasted Pepper and Tomato & Toasted Fennel Seed Yoghurt

A lovely variation to the tagine, a vegetarian version. The fried spicy butternut squash was a revelation.

Ingredients

    For the Spice Mix
  • ½ tbsp of fennel seeds
  • 2 pinches of chilli flakes
  • ½ tbsp of cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp of coriander seeds
  • 1 inch of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of ground ginger
  • ½ tbsp of paprika
  • For the Tagine
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled and roughly cut into 3cm cubes
  • 8 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 red onion diced
  • 1 yellow pepper, diced into 3 cm squares
  • 1 red pepper, diced into 3cm squares
  • 1¾ tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 100g of dried apricots, halved
  • Approx 20 green olives
  • 1 tin of chick peas
  • Olive oil (for frying)
  • For the Fennel Seed Yoghurt
  • 200g of TOTAL Greek yoghurt
  • 2 tsp of fennel seeds
  • ½ tsp of smoked paprika
  • 1 tbsp of coriander, chopped
  • 1 tsp mint, chopped
  • For the Cauliflower Couscous
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 20 inch square of muslin

Instructions

  1. Dry fry, cool and grind all spices for the spice mix in the pestle and mortar.
  2. Dust the cubed butternut squash with a third of the spice mix and fry in batches until brown all over. At this point you are just ‘colouring’ your squash. Set aside.
  3. Heat a casserole and fry the garlic and red onion.
  4. Add the peppers.
  5. Add the tomatoes and bring the pot to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes.
  6. Add the dried apricots, olives and chickpeas.
  7. Add a little water at this point if required.
  8. Add the pre roasted butternut and another third of the spice mix.
  9. Cook on until the butternut is just cooked (about 5 min).
  10. Check the seasoning and add a little salt and some more spice mix if required.
    11. Fennel Seed Yoghurt
  11. Toast the fennel seeds in a frying pan, cool and grind.
  12. Mix the yoghurt with the fennel seeds, paprika, mint & coriander and set aside.
    13. Making the Cauliflower cous cous
  13. Trim cauliflower florets from the stalk.
  14. Whizz up the florets to a crumb in a robot coupe (or a food processor to us home cooks).
  15. Wrap the cauliflower couscous in the muslin and place in a colander over a pan of boiling water for approximately 5 minutes.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/spiced-butternut-tagine-with-roasted-pepper-and-tomato-toasted-fennel-seed-yoghurt/

 

You can find more recipes that Paul created for the campaign using Total Greek here .

Paul Merret runs the Victoria Pub in East Sheen and you can follow him on twitter @PaulMerretChef

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Almond Pannacotta with Lychees and Strawberries

July 10, 2012 By 7 Comments

I like to try new recipes and learn about new ingredients and products. One thing I have never used before is Almond Breeze Milk. I was offered a pack to try and to come up with a breakfast recipe. As this product is good dariy free alternative to milk, I thought I’d use it to make Low Fat Almond Milk Pannacotta with Lychees and Strawberries.

The Chinese have a very popular pudding made with almond tofu and lychees. I think the consistency of tofu would not be right for breakfast but a softer pannacotta made with Almond Breeze Milk and yoghurt would work quite well. Especially if you serve it with a nice fruity accompaniment.

Almond Milk Pannacotta

Almond Milk is actually a great substitute for plain milk, rice milk or even soya milk. (I personally have never understood how you can add soya milk to tea and coffee as we drink it as a beverage in Asia where is is sold on street stalls all over.) This product is unsweetened and has 60% less calories than skimmed milk. Almonds are a great source of nutrition and some might call it a superfood. Almonds are low in saturated fat and are full of good monosaturated fat, minerals, calcium, Vitamin E, fibre and protein.

Here is my recipe :

Print
Almond Pannacotta with Lychees and Strawberries

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

4 servings

Almond Pannacotta with Lychees and Strawberries

A very easy breakfast recipe using Almond Breeze Milk to make a low fat pannacotta with lychees and strawberries. Quick to make and highly nutritional too.

Ingredients

  • 100ml Almond Breeze Milk
  • 100ml double cream
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 3/4 tsp gelatin powder or one sheet of gelatin
  • dash of vanilla extract
  • 400ml of low fat yoghurt
  • a handful of strawberries
  • a few lychees

Instructions

  1. If you are using sheets of gelatin instead of gelatin powder, soak them in cold water. Squeeze out the water before adding to liquid later.
  2. Place the Almond Breeze Milk, cream and sugar in a pan and bring to boil.
  3. Add in a dash of vanilla essence (or 1tsp if you prefer), keep stirring
  4. When the mixture has reached boiling point, take it off the heat.
  5. Add the gelatin powder or sheets and stir until dissolved.
  6. Sieve the mixture to get rid of any lumps and undissolved gelatin and leave aside to cool
  7. After about 15 minutes when the mixture has cooled and thickened a bit, add the yoghurt and stir well.
  8. Place this mixture into little bowls or ramekins but don't fill it to the top.
  9. Cover with cling film and put it in the fridge to set. This will take about 3-4 hours.
  10. Just before eating, prepare the strawberries by washing them and then cutting them in half.
  11. In a bowl, sprinkle over 1tsp of sugar and watch as the juice seeps out creating a nice glace to the strawberries.
  12. To serve, spoon a healthy portion of the strawberries and a few lychees on top of your pannacotta. Enjoy.
  13. Note: You can even add some granola to this for some added crunchy texture.

Notes

Depending on the size of your serving bowls, this make 4 servings.

http://www.eatcookexplore.com/almond-milk-pannacotta/

 

Have you ever used Almond Milk and if so what did you do with it? Share in the comments below.

 

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Tim Anderson’s Biltong Twigs

July 2, 2012 By 1 Comment

At a recent supperclub sponsored by Unearthed, Masterchef Tim Anderson served up goats cheese marshmallows skewered with Biltong Twigs. I was really intriqued as to how he made these and here is the recipe.

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Tim Anderson’s Biltong Twigs

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time:

Lots

Tim Anderson’s Biltong Twigs

A very fun recipe to make biltong twigs. These are not as chewy as real biltong and make a great snack.

Ingredients

  • 20g brown rice
  • 20g high-fibre oat bran cereal (e.g. All-Bran)
  • 60g whole-wheat flour
  • sea salt, to taste
  • 15g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tbsp fennel seeds
  • 1 pack unearthed® biltong
  • 1 egg
  • water
  • vegetable oil

Instructions

  1. Cook the brown rice in salted water until it is very overcooked; it should be slightly mushy. Drain and combine with all dry ingredients in a food processor. Process until a fine crumb is formed.
  2. Add the egg and enough water, little by little, to bring it together into a firm but slightly sticky dough.
  3. Leave to sit for a half hour for the gluten to develop, then roll out into long, thin, twig shapes – try to keep them less than 1cm in diameter, with a slight point on the end.
  4. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat; it should be about 180ºC.
  5. Gently lay the twigs into the oil and fry until they are a dark brown colour.
  6. Drain on kitchen towel and reserve until ready to serve.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/tim-andersons-biltong-twigs/

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Mango Sticky Rice Recipe

June 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

At a recent event at Suda Thai Restaurant in Covent Garden, we were show how to make this very popular Thai Dessert.

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Mango Sticky Rice

Rating: 41

Prep Time: 6 hours

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 6 hours, 15 minutes

5-6 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups glutinous rice
  • 1 cup coconut cream or thick coconut milk
  • 3tbsp coconut cream for topping
  • a pinch of salk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 5-6 Thai mangoes

Instructions

  1. Soak the 2 cups of glufinous rice for 6 hrs. Draìn.
  2. Wrap the rice in clean muslin cloth. Steam in a double pan (a bamboo steamer over a pan of boiling wafer will suffice) for 15 mínufes or until rice is cooked.
    3. Preparing the topping
  3. Boil 3tbsp of cocount cream, add the pinch of salt and set aside.
    4. Sweet Sticky Rice Preparation
  4. Dissolve 1 cup sugar in 1 cup cocount cream over a very low heat.
  5. Add salt and pandan leaves to add aroma. Stir well and remove from heat.
  6. Put the cooked sticky rice in a bowl and gradually blend in the coconut cream.
  7. Stir with a wooden spoon, cover and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
  8. Then fold/ turn again, cover to let the aroma develop.
    9. To serve
  9. Peel and slice the ripe mango. Place sîicky rice on a small plate and top with mango slices.
  10. Spoon the Coconut cream on top of The mango and rice. Serve.
    11. Tips:
  11. Here are the instructions for cooking sticky rice in a microwave:
  12. For 300 grams of sticky rice
  13. I) pouring boiling water over uncooked sticky rice, about on inch over the rice.
  14. 2) stir occasionally for about 5 minutes.
  15. 3) after washing the rice thoroughly with the some water in the container, drain out the water.
  16. 4) put in warm water again just enough to cover the rice.
  17. 5) microwave at high for 5 minutes.
  18. 6) toke it out and stir, it should be ready now.
  19. 7) if the rice is still hard. put into microwave for another 3 minutes.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/mango-sticky-rice-recipe/

You can read the review of Suda Thai Restaurant here.

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