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By clare, January 10, 2012

Well it wasn’t broken rice, just cooked (deliberately) until the grains burst into little soft pillows.

Along with brown stew, the ‘chicken legs’ that the butcher made (more about them later), and a weekly glorious roast beef, one of mum’s staple foods of our childhood was  brown rice, cooked such that each grain remained packed away in its little skin.  Didn’t absorb any sauces or juices on the plate, and was not a favourite.  So it took me a while to approach brown rice again.  The obvious finally dawned on me when I’d got to the stage of being able to overcome childhood prejudices – that it might be fine if just cooked a bit more.  And, voila, so it is.

Back to the chicken legs for a moment.  I wish we had a photo of them, as the butcher who made them, Mr King at Kings Butchers in Sea Lake, the little wheat farming town in which I grew up, has passed on.  They were culinary works of art, in the arts and crafts tradition perhaps, but nonetheless.  Sausage meat, plain, crafted around sturdy circular wooden skewers about the length of a real chicken drumstick.  The sausage meat was shaped into the form of a drumstick, complete with the skinny section which kicked out slightly at the base, just as the ankle joint of a drumstick does.

I’m providing this detail because it meant that when cooked, having also been dusted in breadcrumbs, they contained a wonderful variety of textures from plump and juicy up in the drum of the drumstick down to crunchy and satisfyingly dry at the stick end.  I don’t eat standard sausages these days, and I’m off wheat for a while, but if I found them again I’d indulge, definitely.

So back to the salad, which is in none of the traditions described above, being full of fresh summery flavours.  Here it is:

Busted rice salad

1 1/2 cups brown rice, preferably soaked overnight prior to cooking

2 teaspoons flaky (kosher) salt

1 cup finely diced jicama (2 small or 1 medium jicama)

1/2 medium sized red onion, finely diced

1 cup shelled pistachios, roughly broken

1 tablespoon coconut, rice bran or peanut oil

150g tempeh, cut into small squares & marinated overnight in 1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

2 – 3 tablespoons finely julienned young ginger (about 5cm long knob)

6 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves finely chopped

4 leaves Cuban oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus), finely diced

1 mild red chilli, finely sliced

Dressing

1 – 2 tablespoons honey

1/4 – 1/3 cup lime juice (2 to 4 limes)

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

In a saucepan, cover the rice with about 10 times its volume in water.  Bring to the boil then reduce to the lowest possible heat and cook very gently, lid off, for up to an hour or until the grains are completely busted open.  At about the 1/2 to 3/4 hour mark, when the grains are starting to pop open, add two teaspoons of salt to the water.

While rice is cooking, dice all the other salad ingredients.  Mix the dressing ingredients and taste for balance of tart, salty and sweet, adjust as needed.

Drain the tempeh and keep the soy marinade, heat the oil in a pan over a medium to hot heat and quickly cook the small tempeh sqares until crisp on one side, toss over briefly then place back into the soy marinade.

Once cooked drain rice into a colander, then transfer into a bowl while still warm and mix through all other ingredients and dressing.  This salad is great warm or cold and keeps well for a day or two in the fridge (although it’s hard to make it last that long).

Substitute the parsley and Cuban oregano for whatever herbs you prefer or have in abundance in the garden at the time.  The chilli can be left out and replaced by cracked pepper, or not.  Can make a lunch just on its own, serve with other salads for a heartier meal, or as a side with fish or poultry.

© Clare Richards 2010

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By clare, January 9, 2012

Winged bean roots

Post-Christmas indulgence in the sultry heat of the Wet season is a great time to be eating heaps of herbs to help the body regenerate from the excesses of the party season.

The garden is madly sprouting – young turmeric leaves, wild pepper leaves, long leaf (sawtooth, Mexican or Thai) coriander, Vietnamese mint, garlic chives and Asian basil to name a few. Today we made a salad with rocket, young winged bean leaves (which have a mildly bitter foretaste and a green pea aftertaste, very pleasant) and a generous and finely sliced mix of all of the above, excepting wild pepper leaves as the mosquitoes were too virulent at sunset in that part of the garden.

Mixed with some soft fetta cheese, diced tomato and hard boiled eggs it made a great salad.  Oh, and also bits of diced winged bean root too.  First time I’d experimented with it.  It peels like cassava, having a thick but pliable bark-like skin, needs a while to cook (the small sections we boiled needed at least 1/2 hour), keeps a crunchy waterchestnut texture and has a mild nuttiness to its flavour.

I’ll add a photo tomorrow…

© Clare Richards 2010

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By clare, December 20, 2011

This is a gluten free variation on my Sago Christmas pudding in tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen.

I’ve just made mine for this Christmas, and thought I’d share the recipe.

It’s an easy recipe, with the main point being the need to prepare the sago and the fruit a day (or two if you want) before Christmas day.

If you don’t want gluten free, use breadcrumbs instead of the quinoa.

So if you haven’t decided on a dessert yet there’s still time to try this light textured, lush Christmas classic with a twist..

Sago Christmas Pudding gluten free Image © Alison George Catseye Productions

Sago Christmas pudding, gluten free

This easy recipe does not demand much attention, but it does take time and needs half a day at home.  I have always loved a sago pudding at Christmas, and this is now part of my tropical Christmas spread, made with our beautiful locally dehydrated tropical fruits.  I use a mixture of dried  mango, pineapple, banana and sometime a little papaya as well.

The fruit mix and sago need preparing the night before.  Sago puddings freeze well, so I make 1 large 1 1/2 litre pudding (which serves at least 6 people) for Christmas day and up to another 6 inidivual puds to freeze as backup desserts over the Christmas break.

Sago pudding also re-steams well, so you can cook ahead and freeze or keep in the fridge for a few days and re-steam on the day.  To combine the mixture you will need a large mixing bowl, the size of a very large salad bowl or breadmaking bowl.  Serve the finished pudding with hard rum sauce.

750g dehydrated tropical fruits, chopped finely

1/2 cup dark rum

200g sago

3 1/2 cups milk

butter, for greasing the pudding bowls

3/4 cup sugar (I prefer dark brown or palm sugar)

4 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 cinnamon stick, ground (about 2 teaspoons powder)

1 tablespoon ground chai spices, or mixed spice or garam masala

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 cups raw, hulled quinoa (or 2 cups dried breadcrumbs, or 4 cups fresh breadcrumbs if you want a gluten-containing version!)

80g butter, melted

4 eggs

Any time from 2 days prior to the night before, finely chop the fruit, place in a container, sprinkle with rum and cover and set aside.  Combine the sago and milk at the same time, cover and leave in the fridge.

About 4 hours prior to when you plan to serve the pudding, butter a 6 cup pudding basin (1 1/2 to 2 litre capacity) and six 1 cup ramekins.  (You can of course vary this and make two medium sized puddings – your choice!).

Combine the sugar, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, chai spices, ginger and quinoa together well.  Add to the fruit, mixing well.  Stir in the sago and milk mixture.  Whisk together the melted butter and eggs and stir into the pudding mixture.

Spoon the pudding mixture into the basin and ramekins until they are 2/3 full.  Cover with circles of brown or baking paper and two layers of foil and tie firmly with string.

You can boil the puddings in two pans at the same time, or cook one after the other.  Place the basin or ramekins into a stockpot on a wire rack or circle of crumpled foil (to stop the basins cracking against the base of the saucepan as they simmer).

Pour in enough boiling water to come 2/3 up the side of the basin (or ramekins).  Cook individual puddings on a simmer for 2 hours, and the large pudding for 3 hours.  If your puddings are making a mad clattering sound, the heat is too high.  Turn it down to a heat where the simmer is just enough that they make a gentle, happy tapping sound for the little puds, or a slow tap for the large basin.  Finished pudding tops will look dark, plump and glossy.

To re-heat, follow the same cooking procedure but simmer for 1 hour for the large basin and 20 minutes for individual puddings.

Hard Rum Sauce

The traditional hard sauce uses brandy, but a good quality mellow dark rum is the perfect complement to the flavours of the tropical fruit in my sago pudding.

125g unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

3 tablespoons dark rum

Beat the butter until creamy and pale.  Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until the mixture looks like whipped cream.  Add the rum in little drizzles, making sure it is incorporated before adding more or the mixture can split.  Spoon into small ramekins, cover with cling film and store in the fridge.  It will keep for a few days this way.

To freeze, spoon into an airtight container and label.  It will keep in the freezer for several months.

© Clare Richards 2011

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By clare, September 23, 2011

I filmed a brief section today for the WIN News in Cairns, to be aired tonight from 6.30pm on WIN News.  For the segment I prepared a very straightforward dish that is quick to throw together and is based on some of my favourite ingredients.

In the segment they will be mentioning that I am a stall holder at tomorrow’s (Saturday 24th September) Book Expo in Cairns where people can come along for a chat, check out the book, purchase and have your book signed.  Just note that due to Eftpos glitches it will be cash only sales (my book is hardback, 250+ recipes, lots of photography and sells at $59.95).

In my cookbook, tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen I provide another variation on this coconut-and-aromatics sauce, titled coconut and lime sauce.  If you love this recipe, get the book!  If you have tropical cuisine already, try this recipe, and if you haven’t already cooked the coconut and lime sauce, give that a go too….

I made this dish with home-dried turmeric, dug from my mate Kate’s garden and dried in my food dryer.  Once dried it grinds to a fine powder in an electric spice grinder, and the flavour is so much fuller than any bought version.  When buying turmeric powder, to get the best quality, buy from a quality spice merchant such as Herbies Spices or from Indian or Asian grocers.

This dish is based on fresh ingredients, so choose the plumpest ginger and galangal roots you can find and avoid shrunken, dried out specimens.  All the aromatics below are available at Rustys market and many are increasingly available at other fresh produce markets also.  Remember if you want ingredients, and your local fresh grocer doesn’t have them, ask them to stock them.  All the ingredients below are being grown in our region so there’s no reason not to be able to get them – we just have to let our retailers know what we want.

AROMATIC COCONUT FISH

600g fillet firm white fleshed fish (today I used Amberjack)

1 tablespoon peanut oil

3 cloves garlic, finely diced

about 4 or 5 slices ginger

about 4 or 5 slices galangal

1 pandan leaf, torn along edges and knotted

about 6 kaffir lime leaves, torn along their edges

2 small (or 1 large) stalks lemongrass, cut down length and crossways into 2-3 lengths

2 teaspoons turmeric powder

600ml coconut cream (if using from a tin the ingredients list should read around 60% content coconut cream)

1 teaspoon flaky salt (or 1/2 teaspoon standard salt)

lime wedges to serve

METHOD

Cut fish fillets into large chunks (about 2-3cm across).

Heat a medium sized saucepan over a medium heat and add peanut oil.

Add diced garlic, ginger, galangal, pandan, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass.

Keep the heat at medium to low as you don’t want to brown the garlic.

Stir for a minute or two until you start to smell the aromas releasing, then add the turmeric, stir through quickly then add the coconut cream.

Bring to a simmer then add the fish pieces.

Bring back to a simmer again, add the salt then cover and cook on a gentle heat for around 12 minutes, checking and stirring occaisionally.

The fish should remain firm but be opaque and white right through.

Serve with steamed rice, lime wedges and steamed or stir-fried greens such as amaranth, snake or green beans, kang kong or gai lan.

PS Did you know that ginger, galangal and turmeric are all cousins, members of the Zingiberaceae family?  These three, and all the herbs and spices above (excepting garlic) grow with ease and vigour in our climate, so if you are a gardener, it is very easy to grow your own spice cabinet!

Copyright © Clare Richards 2011

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By clare, January 9, 2011

Salaks

ORIGIN

Salak, sometimes also called snake-skin or snake fruit because the skin resembles snake leather in appearance, is the fruit of a range of closely related and very spiny palms.  Salak (Salacca zalacca) is a species of palm tree of the family Arecaceae and is native to Indonesia. The variety available in Bali is widely held as being the most appetising.

I recently obtained some fruit from the Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm to experiment with their uses.  Salaks have a lovely flavour somewhere between passionfruit, banana and pineapple to my palate.

PREPARATION

Despite their almost fearsome looking skin, salaks are very easy to peel.  Simply push the tip sideways and the skin will break open, and from there it is easy to peel them.  If the tip is inverted, as it is on some fruit, push inwards on it and you’ll achieve the same result.  Keep them stored in the fridge and they can last for up to two weeks.  I am about to also try freezing the peeled flesh as I suspect it may cope quite well with freezing due to its firm texture.

The texture is crunchy, similar to the crunchy varieties of jackfruit.

SERVING

The fruit is astringent while unripe, and a small amount of astringency can remain in the ripe fruit – the only effect of which is a slight dry sensation on the palate when eaten plain out of hand.  It is easy to counteract this by serving salak, de-seeded, sliced or chopped and mixed with juicy fruit such as passionfruit, papaya or carambola.  In these combinations any dryness on the palate disappears and the flavour and crunchy texture shine through – a great combination with soft luscious tropical fruits.  For a contrast to salak’s crisp texture, it is also a great match with the creamy, juicy pulp of any of the Atemoyas such as custard apple, rollinia or guanabana (soursop).

This morning we made coconut rice pudding with a sprinkling of ground chai spices (I make my own blend which is in my cookbook tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen) and served it with a fruit salad of salak, banana, passionfruit, carambola and papaya.  YUM!

As a savoury snack, try dipping larger slices of salak which have been marinating in freshly squeezed lime juice into a mixture of chilli powder and salt, a great Asian approach to snacking that goes very well with a beer.

I also expect they will make a great salad sliced finely with jicama and dressed with lime juice, flaky salt and some fresh sliced chilli – that one is on my to do list for the next day or two.

Salak can also be added to warm salads or stir fries, in the same way that I use longans in the longans and shitake mushrooms with soba noodles recipe in tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen.  Longans provide lush juiciness to that dish, so if using salaks instead you may want to use a mixture of soft and firm tofu as the soft tofu will reintroduce a creamy texture to the dish to counter the removal of the longans.

The flesh is also delicious just sliced and mixed with freshly squeezed lime juice.

Keep an eye out for salaks at your local Asian grocer or fresh produce outlet – their flavour and crispy texture make them well worth trying.