Showing posts with label tequila. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tequila. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon





Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
 
Lance often mocks me the various random frozen things in ziplock bags I have in the freezer. He quizzed me the other day on whether I knew what was actually in them and he pointed out a bag of crab flesh from a summer crabbing trip. Given it’s recommended to be frozen 3-6 months, we decided it needed to be eaten. I enjoyed the pomegranate gin sabayon so much, I decided I’d do something similar. But I was in a tequila-y kinda mood.

This post is really two distinct recipes. Crab with a smokey tequila sabayon and a beetroot and lentil patty. Both of these recipes are fully standalone dishes. They taste amazing by themselves. I make a variation of this patty for burgers quite often (so good with sweet potato chips!). And the crab with a toasted sabayon in smaller portions on top of a fancy cracker/toast makes the most elegant canapĂ©. But the flavours go together really well and I’ve only photographed it together, so I’ll serve it up here in the one post! But the combination of earthy beetroot, sweet crab and smokey sauce is brilliant. Add a peppery leaves salad and you’ve got a perfect meal!
Word to the wise – don’t decide to make a sabayon after you come home from an arms session at the gym! The whisking is a work-out all in itself.

Oh, and the beet patties are fairly fragile, so be super careful when flipping and serving.
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon


Roast Beetroot Patties

2 large beetroot
1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for frying
400g tin lentils
1 cup cooked quinoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
1 egg
2/3 cup oats (GF if need be)

Preheat the oven to 170C. Scrub the beets, then drizzle with 1 tbsp oil and wrap tightly in foil. Place in the oven and roast until fork-tender – around 40 minutes. Set aside to cool. When cool, rub with your fingers to remove the skins. Cut into quarters.

Place the beets and lentils into your food processor and pulse 4-5 times to break up the veges a bit and combine. Add the salt, basil and egg and pulse another 4-5 times to blend well. Remove to a bowl and add the oats, mix in with your hands, blending together well. Form into approximately 8 patties and lay out on a lined baking tray (just to save dishes) and place in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.
Heat a layer of oil in a large frypan to a medium heat and gently slide 4 patties in the pan. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the patties are crisp on the bottom. Again, very gently flip with a spatula and cook for another 3 minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and tent with tin foil to keep warm while you cook the next 4.
 
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon


Smokey Tequila Sabayon on Crab

1 clove garlic, sliced
1 tbsp honey
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp tequila
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp smokey paprika
200g cooked crab flesh, picked over for shell and cartilage.

Heat a tbsp. of oil in a frypan over a low heat and put the slices of garlic in. Toss around in the hot oil until browned and crisp. Drain on paper towel.
Preheat the oven to 150C. On a lined baking tray, form 6 small, tight piles of the crab flesh.

Fill a small saucepan with water and place a glass bowl over it. Heat to medium, until there are gentle bubbles. Add the egg yolks and honey to the glass bowl and whisk constantly until the eggyolks triple in volume and lighten. Take off the heat and whisk whilst slowly drizzling in the tequila. Keep whisking until fully incorporated and then whisk in the salt and paprika.

Spoon a few tablespoons of the sabayon on top of the crab piles, then place in the oven for 10 minutes until the top is just browning and the crab is heated through.

To serve, place a beetroot patty on the plate and gently slide a crab pile on top. Serve with a green salad

 
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon
Two Recipes - Roast Beet and Lentil Patties - Crab with Smokey Tequila Sabayon

Monday, May 26, 2014

Cake Club Baking - Lime and Black Pepper Chip Shortbread Cookies


At my brother’s work, they have a monthly ‘Cake Club’. A monthly morning tea where they take turn to bring in a few baked goods for everyone to share. Mike has been known to bring in some ‘weird’ treats – things that are delicious but have a bit of an unusual ingredient in them. He’s taken in the Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter and Bacon Choc Chip Cookies – things like that. Since that’s what he’s known for, now he goes out of his way to provide the weird treats. With this in mind, I tried to come up with something both delicious and weird. Something that they’d probably never had before – and the combination of which would blow their minds.

And so I present Lime and Black Pepper Chip Shortbread Cookies. A tangy, salty, sweet, crunchy cookie that’s so confused, but so delicious. With citrusy chocolate drizzled on for good measure It’s like a chocolate margarita biscuit. Now, this cookie is not everyone’s cup o’ tea. But it’s definitely mine.

I spent the weekend baking with him and today his work will get some Snickerdoodles, some of my pumpkin muffins with candied bacon and this Lime and Black Pepper Shortbread. These really are best the day you make them, because you want them crisp and crunchy, but you can store them in an airtight container for up to a week.



For the biscuits:
(makes approx 30 mini muffin tray sized) 1 large bag Red Rock Deli Lime and Black Pepper Chips
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup finely shredded coconut
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of one lime
A few grinds of black pepper

For the chocolate ganache drizzle:
50g dark chocolate, chopped
1 tsp tequila
2 tsp coconut cream
Zest 1 lime

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.

Pulse the chips in a food processor until it forms a fine crumb. Mix the chip crumbs with the flour, sugar, zest, pepper and coconut in a bowl, then mix in the melted butter. Press tablespoonsful into the base of a mini muffin tray. Compact with your fingers, or the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Leave to cool completely in the pans, then use a knife to run around the outside of each biscuit and carefully remove from the tray.

To make the drizzle, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave in 30 second bursts until melted. Stir through the coconut cream, tequila and lime zest. Pour into a ziplock bag, cut the tip off and drizzle the chocolate ganache over the top of the cookies.
 
 


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Food Inspiration - Once Upon a Time with Beef Pibil

Food inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. Have you seen "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"? It's got Johnny Depp in it, of course you have! In it, his character says that he orders Puerco Pibil in every dive he goes to in Mexico, ordering it with tequila and lime. There's a sort of pivotal point he makes in relation to the dish, which I won't go into on the off-chance that you haven't seen it. But consequently, the dish is deemed significant enough for the recipe to be included on the DVD. Awesome, right?

Knowing my husband's love of food & tequila matching, I surprised him one day around 5 years ago by making this slow-roasted pork dish. Well, as close as I could (I couldn't find annatto seeds or banana leaves). It was pretty darn good. It's a pretty specific hot/citrussy flavour that both of us end up craving from time to time. You know something I realised just not - a lot of my food cravings are things that are either slow-cooked or have ingredients that I don't ordinarily have on hand - convenient :/). My husband has to work on public holidays, so consequently I often end up making slow-cooked or complicated dishes on these days. So I have time to make them and he gets to come home to something awesome. Win-win!

Last public holiday, I decided two things. I was *finally* going to make my own tortillas. This was something I was putting off until weekends because the idea seemed time consuming - but then our weekends were so full that it still never happened. I am absolutely addicted to tacos at the moment, so it just makes sense for me to make my own tortillas. And two, I wanted to make Puerco Pibil to go in those tacos. With tequila and lime on the side. I didn't have any pork in the house, but i did have a big lump of beef. I thought that beef would stand up to the flavours just as well. So, Beef Pibil? I chucked it all in the slow cooker, made some fresh guacamole, a fresh tomato and nectarine salsa to kick in some sweetness, a few crispy veges in my own homemade corn tortillas. Now, who wouldn't want to come home from a hard day's work to eat that?



Beef Pibil
1.5kg beef gerello
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
1 tbsp salt
2 green chillis, finely diced
2 jalapeno chillis, finely diced
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
8 garlic cloves
juice of 5 lemons
shot of tequila (I use a reposado for cooking)
half tin black beans - optional

Cut the beef up into chunky dice, or i just sliced into fat rings that would be just submerged in the braising liquid. Grind the spices in a mortar and pestle. Mix all the liquids together in a bowl, stir the spices in.

Throw the beef and braising liquid into your slow cooker, then cook on high for 4 hours, turning occasionally. When the beef is tender, use two forks to shred, then continue cooking for an extra half hour with the lid off to cook off some of the liquid. Add the black beans, if you're using them.



Tomato & Nectarine Salsa
2 large, ripe tomatos
2 small, ripe nectarines
splash of red wine liqueur vinegar
hot sauce to taste
chopped coriander
chopped basil
chopped flat leaf parsley

Everything here is basically to taste, chop it up, mix it up. Let it rest for half an hour or so for the flavours to infuse while you make the tortillas.



Corn Tortillas

As per the recipe in this book, bought for me by the lovely Jasmine  
3 cups tortilla flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups warm water

Mix the flour and salt together, add the water and mix with your hands, kneading it to become a firm dough. This is only a minute or so. The dough should be slightly sticky, and leave a light film on your hands. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes.

Take small balls of dough (around 2 tbsps) , roll out disc-like between two sheets of baking paper. Try make it as even thickness as possible.

In a frypan heated to medium, carefully place the tortilla onto the pan. Flip over after around 30 seconds, then again after 30 seconds. Both sides should be slightly coloured. Put on a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm.

Repeat with all the dough.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Summer: Blue Swimmer Crab and Chilli Pasta

You know how there are some activities that just encapsulate a season for you? On top of the obvious things like swimming, eating stone fruit,  suffering mosquitos, celebrating Christmas and Australia Day, and generally trying to stay cool, something that jumps out and screams “Summer!!” for me is crabbing. Every year that I have been with my husband, we somehow managed to score a free night amongst the madness that is our holiday season – with birthdays it extends from the start of November til the start of February – to spend a night crabbing with his sister. It’s something I remember doing as a kid, too. We used to go down to our friend’s house in Mandurah, the dad’s would head out at dusk and crab all night, then we’d wake up to a massive pot of crabs cooking away as the sun rose. We have always done it more glamorously, wearing waders rather than old Dunlop vollies and bathers, so we can strip and drive off relatively clean and dry. But with torch nestled in our armpits, and scoop net in hand, we scour the bay for blue swimmer crabs. Turning our nose up at the females and little ones, going blind and delirious as the night goes on and you can’t see through the water anymore. And coming home to cook our catch at 3 in the morning. Back aching and completely exhausted from trudging through knee-deep water with a squelchy river bed; but excited to have done something a bit different on a balmy summer’s night. Most years we aren’t terribly successful, getting only a handful. This year, we ended up almost at our quota. So on top of eating a few claws fresh out of the pot, still warm, dipped in passionfruit vinegar, I got to be a bit experimental with the crab flesh.
 
 
 
We don’t tend to eat a lot of seafood, because it’s fairly expensive, but I am a big fan in almost all of it’s forms. Often, unless we catch it, we don’t eat it! Being a fairly delicate and sweet flavoured flesh, I thought simple and clean flavours was best for making a crab pasta. I didn’t want it to be lost in a heavy sauce. My husband, as well as re-acquainting me with crabbing, also introduced me to using tequila in cooking. One of his favourite things to do is pour a capful (maybe 5-10mL) of his favourite tequila over a big juicy steak. As it hits the steak and warms up, the aroma is incredible. Seriously, try it. I used a reposado for this dish, but ordinarily I stick to anejo’s or a Mezcal, as that is what we usually drink.
The crabs we boil in a large pot of water with 2 heaped tsps of hot English mustard and a good few glugs of white vinegar.
 
 
 
Crab and Chilli Pasta
 
2 shallots
2 BIG cloves garlic
1 chilli
2 sweet paprika, diced
1 tub grape tomatoes
3 yellow squash, diced
Zest and juice from 2 lemons
Splash tequila
2 handfuls of cooked crab meat
Fresh coriander
Fresh parsley
250g egg pasta
Parmesan, pepper and chilli flakes to serve
Bring plenty of salted water to the boil
Fry minced shallots, chilli and garlic in oil until translucent. Add lemon zest
Add sweet paprika, squash and tomatoes, cook until softened a tad
Cook pasta as per instructions
Smoosh tomatoes against side of the pan, add tequila, lemon juice and crab meat, stir until crab meat heated through
Add noodles, and a splash of olive oil, stir to coat and combine
Add fresh herbs
Serve with freshly grated cheese, pepper and chilli flakes.
 
Being an Australian Summer, I also recommend drinking a nice Semillon Sauvignon Blanc to go with it.