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By clare, February 8, 2012

This is a flavoursome, fresh pasta sauce which goes well with the taro gnocchi mentioned in the adjacent post.  It is gluten free and dairy free but thanks to the pumpkin seed meal and olive oil has a creamy texture.

It can also be used as a salsa or dip, or added to tacos, tortillas or salad rolls.

The celery seed salt is a recipe I’ve posted here.

If you want to deepen the red colour of the sauce, add a teaspoon of annatto/achiote powder.

The ripe mamey sapote adds a sweet intense back-note to the flavour, similar to tomato paste.  Mamey sapote pulp freezes well, so if you have a very ripe fruit, consider freezing it in small batches to use when needed as a tomato paste substitute.  My tropical reference cookbook, tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen, has a section in the encyclopaedia which goes into detail about the selection, ripening, preparation, storage and culinary uses of mamey sapote.

fresh tomato and pumpkin seed pasta sauce

Fresh tomato and pumpkin seed pasta sauce

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, ground finely

1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed salt

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (about 2 tips)

1/4 cup finely sliced sweet basil (about 3 sprigs)

12 garlic chive leaves, finely chopped (substitute with onion chives if needed)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup very ripe mamey sapote pulp (substitute quality tomato paste if you don’t have mamey sapote)

2 medium tomatoes, briefly blanched, peeled and finely diced

2 teaspoons lime juice (about 1/2 a lime)

Mix all ingredients together, cover, and leave to stand at room temperature for an hour or so for flavours to develop prior to serving.  Makes about 2 1/2 – 3 cups of sauce, enough for 2 – 3 people when used as a pasta sauce.

(C) Clare Richards 2012

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By clare, August 12, 2010

I am in Victoria for the week visiting family, and it makes talking of winter nights in Cairns seem a bit comical – it’s freezing here, and I’ve got everything rugged up. Nonetheless, we do have our own version of winter, and I still do crave those wintry dishes. I recently put together the dish below, and it is great winter fare – lush, flavoursome and comforting.

Beef cheeks with mandarin and prunes

1.8 to 2kg beef cheeks

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon smoky paprika

6-7 whole red shallots, peeled

1 head garlic, peeled

2/3 of the skin of 1 large mandarin

1 1/2 cups pitted prunes

2 teaspoon flaky salt Continue reading 'Winter nights'»

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By admin, December 4, 2009

Red Salmon Soup © Clare Richards 2009

I am in the throes of an intense stretch of food photography with my photographer Ali George.  From now until the end of December when she zips off on an international assignment, we are immersed in completing the photography for Tropical Cuisine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen.  This also means I’m very busy sourcing produce and constantly shopping (at least it seems that way).  Yesterday while buying seafood for the BBQ shots we’re doing, I spied bags of fresh Atlantic Salmon off cuts, gleaming in the way that only very fresh seafood does.  When I found out they had been filleted that morning from fish straight from Tasmania, and that the 1 kg bag was all of $2, I nabbed a bag immediately and went home and cooked this soup.  I generally buy local Queensland Catch seafood, but $2 for 1 kg of fresh salmon can’t be passed by:

Red Salmon soup

about 1 kg Atlantic Salmon off cuts (head, wings, backbone, etc.)

800g tin diced tomato

800ml water

2 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp tamarind pulp

3 tbsp chilli sambal (mine is mild so you may want to start with 1 tbsp of commercial types and taste)

1 lime leaf, torn along each side

1 kaffir lime leaf, torn along each side

4 fine slices of galangal

Put tomato and water into a wide large saucepan, add salmon pieces and all other ingredients, taking care to under use the chilli sambal as extra can be added later if needed.  Bring the whole to the boil then reduce to a low simmer and allow to cook for 1 hour.  Taste for salt and chilli and add a little extra of each if needed.  This soup is supposed to have just a hint of chilli so don’t overdo it.  Strain the contents through a colander sitting over a large bowl and return the liquid to the saucepan.  Sit the colander in the sink and pick through the solids, removing tomato chunks and good meat to the large bowl, taking care to locate and remove bones.  Return the meat and tomato chunks to the liquid in the saucepan and reheat for 5 minutes or so before serving.  Serve with a generous sprinkling of fresh garlic chives.  Makes 3 generous serves.