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Chả Cá Lã Vọng with Jacopever

Chả Cá Lã Vọng with Jacopever

If I can not travel, my mind will, memories of Vietnamese food is driving me mad. I will happily travel to Vietnam just to have dinner at a homestay to have a portion of cơm lam (rice steamed in bamboo over a fire). Somethings are just so damn good that it makes it easy to return time and time again. A number of years ago before going to Hanoi for the first time I had done a lot of research of where and what to eat, and at the top of my list with Pho, Bánh mì, Bun bo nam bo, Banh cuon, Bún chả bunca was Chả Cá.The food in Vietnam is pretty healthy with so much herbs, loads of greens with the focus on freshness, balance of sweet, sour and salt.

Chả Cá Lã Vọng in Hanoi cooked table sideIn the old quarter many restaurants specialise in one dish, I love this about eateries in Hanoi, they do not have restaurants with long menus, instead they focus on one, and do that dish very well, in the old quarter many restaurants specialise in cooking the tumeric spiced fish at your table, admittedly sometimes it does feel a little touristy, so finding the right spot is important.We make this at home often, especially on those hot summer nights this is a very light refreshing dinner option. I often place the marinated fish like Jacopever in the weber on a used oak wine barrel plank and roast. It gives it a little smokiness which works so well with the combination of turmeric, ginger, garlic, dill, spring onion, peanut and fish sauce. Traditionally made with snakehead or catfish, any firm white fleshed fish will work.

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Ingredients

600 g Jacopever fillets
Oil for cooking
Fish Marinade
2 tbsp Oil
2 tsp Sugar White
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
¼ Onion Red Chopped Very Fine
2 tsp Turmeric Ground
1 tbsp Ginger Fresh & Grated Fine
3 Cloves Garlic Minced
1 Bunch Of Dill
10 Spring Onions Cut 2 cm Lengths With the White Parts Sliced in Half Again in Length.
½ Cup Roasted Peanuts Whole or Chopped
Garnish Sides
Extra Peanuts toasted as needed
300 g Rice Vermicelli dried
Handful of Mint Roughly Torn
Handful of Vietnamese Mint Roughly Torn
Bunch of Coriander Roughly Chopped or Picked
Red Chilies Red Chopped
250 ml Nuoc Cham
1 ea Lime cut into Wedges
Nuoc Cham Sauce
4 tbsp Water
2 tbsp Sugar White
4 tbsp Lime Juice Fresh
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Clove Garlic Minced
2 ea Birds eye Chili finely sliced

Instructions

Combine all ingredients for fish marinade and add cut Jacopever chunks, leave for +/- 45 min.
Make the nuoc cham dressing by combining sugar with lime juice add the fish sauce, chili, garlic and water. It must be sour, sweet and salty.
Cut spring into 2.5 cm long pieces with white of spring onion split in length in half.
Place rice vermicelli noodles in boiling water for 2-3 minutes or according to cooking instructions. Cool and place one side.
Heat pan and add oil, add the fish and cook until golden brown. Do not overcrowd the pan. Repeat the second and third batch. Best part is the golden crispy bits.
Cook Spring and dill with leftover marinade from fish until wilted. Add fish on top.
To serve, place cold rice vermicelli in bowl, add fish with dill, add fresh greens with peanuts and top with nuoc cham dressing.

Notes

Served with cold rice vermicelli noodles, handfuls of dill and spring onion with roasted peanuts with vietnamese mint, coriander and for me the part that brings it together – nuoc cham (combination of fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and red chili). If you want to be more traditional make a shrimp paste sauce – Mam Ruoc Cham.
So weather you call it Chả Cá Thăng Long, Chả Cá Lã Vọng, Chả Cá Hà Nội, or just Chả Cá do not wait for your next trip, make it at home and pretend you hear the noise of a thousand scooters outside

Greek Style Roast Leg of Lamb

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Greek Style Roast Leg of Lamb

Greek Style Roast Leg Of Lamb, Photo Credit www.crushmag-online.com[/caption] This recipe is done by Chef Jaco who has been with me for many years, currently looking after the Banqueting operation at the hotel. What makes this recipe great the lemon and tomato, giving the lamb that smack for more. We prefer removing the lamb from refrigerator a hour before roasting to bring to room temperature. Adding more garlic is optional and advised. This Recipe was first published as part of an Easter recipe compilation for crushmag-online

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Ingredients

Basting Sauce
5 ea Garlic Cloves grated
1 Tbsp Rosemary chopped
zest of 1 lemon
Salt & Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
juice of 4-6 lemons
250 ml Olive oil
6 ea Tomatoes grated
Lamb
2-2.5 kg Leg of Lamb
5 cloves garlic sliced into quarters
15-20 Sprigs Rosemary
Mirepoix 1 large onion, 1 large carrot, 2 sticks celery, 1 leek cleaned and sliced
3 ea tomatoes diced
10-12 Baby Potatoes
250 ml Water

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C
While the oven is preheating make the basting sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl. Set aside until ready to use.
Turn the heat down to 165 °C.
Make small incisions in the flesh of the lamb on both sides. Insert the garlic slices into the incisions.
Season the lamb leg well with salt, pepper and baste.
Place the leg of lamb on a bed of rosemary, the mirepoix and the diced tomato. Roast for 1.5 hours, turning and basting the lamb every half hour.
Scatter the baby potatoes around the lamb and pour in the water. Add a little more water if it becomes too dry.
Finish at 190 °C for about 20 minutes. If you enjoy your lamb a little extra well done, cook for an additional half hour.
When the lamb is cooked, remove from oven and allow to rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.
Photo Credit www.crushmag-online.com

Pork Ribs With a Coffee Basting Sauce

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Coffee Pork Ribs Photo credit – www.crushmag-online.com

Jaco created this recipe for on of our shoots with crush online, must say it is perfect for those lazy Sunday afternoon braai’s or even for a new years day braai. A lot of marinated ribs are available off the shelf ready for the braai. But there is nothing more satisfying than cooking own ribs flavouring a vegetable stock with ginger, cloves and star anise. Then basting the ribs for the braai with this coffee inspired sauce.

Yield: 2kg pork ribs, 4 portions

INGREDIENTS
for the pork ribs
2kg pork ribs, cut into 500g portions (par-cooked)

For the coffee basting sauce
70ml double espresso
70ml bbq sauce
70ml sweet Indonesian soya sauce
2g sambal oelek
5g fresh ginger, grated fine
5g corn flour

METHOD
Place the ribs on the braai and first warm them before starting to brush them with the basting sauce
Brush the rib every time you turn them and only leave them for about a minute or two on each side, to avoid caramelising the meat too much
Cut the ribs into small riblets and serve warm

To prepare the coffee basting sauce
Combine the coffee, sweet Indonesian soya sauce, ginger, bbq sauce and mix well
Take some of the coffee sauce and add it to the corn flour and mix into a slurry
Ad the slurry back to the coffee sauce and pour the mix into a small sauce pot
Warm the sauce until it starts to thicken – check the flavouring
Remove from the heat and cool
Use a brush to baste the ribs while they on the braai

Roast Turkey With Bacon and Apple Stuffing

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Roast Turkey With Bacon & Apple Stuffing

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Ingredients

Bacon & Apple Stuffing
20 ml Olive Oil
3 Onions Medium peeled and diced
2 Celery Stalks diced
130 g Bacon chopped
100 g Butter
15 g Sugar
3 Granny Smith Apples peeled and cubed (small)
100 g Pecan Nuts roughly chopped
6 cloves Garlic peeled
½ C 125 ml Apple Cider
½ C 125 ml Chicken Stock
30 ml Sage chopped
30 ml Parsley chopped
30 ml Thyme Picked picked
1 tsp 5 ml Lemon Zest
50 g Liver minced
500 g Stale Bread ciabatta, dried
salt and pepper to taste
3 ea Eggs optional
Roast Turkey
5-6 kg Turkey whole
Salt & Pepper
200 g Carrots cubed
200 g Apples cubed
200 g Onions cubed
200 g Celery cubed
2 Oranges halved
2 Sprigs Thyme
2 Bay Leaves
50 g butter
500 ml Chicken Stock
2 Heads Garlic whole, cut in half crossways
16 Baby Onions skinned
12 Small to Medium sized Whole Carrots peeled
Gravy
Reserved juices from roast
100-150 ml White Wine sherry or cider
extra stock as needed
Beurre Banie as required
reserved turkey liver cleaned and chopped (optional)
Roast potatoes
12 -16 Whole Potatoes peeled
Salt & Pepper
pinch Paprika
Rosemary or Thyme picked
100 g Duck Fat use more if needed

Instructions

Bacon and Apple Stuffing
Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté the onions until soft. Add the celery and bacon and continue to cook until the celery is soft. Add the butter, sugar and apples and continue to sauté allowing the mixture to caramelise slightly. Add the pecan nuts and garlic.
Add the cider to deglaze then add the stock and reduce by half.
Add the herbs, lemon zest and minced liver.
Add the bread and allow the liquid to be absorbed, continue mixing until soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Allow to cool.
The stuffing can be made the day before. I do not add egg to my stuffing but if a tighter stuffing is preferred, add three whole eggs when finishing off the stuffing.
Roast Turkey
As this is a big bird it will benefit from being covered for the first half of the cooking time in the oven. For a turkey between 5-6 kg allow 3-3¾ hours in the oven. Covering the bird with foil for the first 1-1 ½ hours, will avoid the skin burning. Take care not to wrap the foil too tightly around the skin as the foil will stick to the skin.
Remove giblets and neck, use with mire poix vegetables when roasting. Keep the liver for use later.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Season the bird inside and outside with the salt and pepper.
Fill the cavity with the stuffing and truss the turkey. Rub the outside of the turkey with butter and place on a bed of the cut vegetables in a roasting pan. Add the giblets and necks. Add the oranges, thyme and bay leaves. Pour the stock into roasting pan and cover with foil (shiny side down).Remove the foil after 1 hour to check the turkey and rub with butter again.
Add the whole carrots, the baby onions and the whole garlic heads (cut across in half). Continue cooking and basting for the remaining time. Take care not to burn the turkey. If it gets too dark, place foil over it again to finish.
If using a thermometer to check the internal temperature, remove the turkey from the oven when it reaches 70 °C and allow to rest (temperature will rise to 78 °C after resting).
Remove carrots, onion and garlic.
Remove the turkey from the roasting pan while resting to make sure that you catch all of the juices. Rest covered.
Gravy
As I do not have an exact recipe for the gravy, instinct must guide you. Retain all of the juices and drippings to make a great gravy. Deglaze the roasting pan with cider and place the liquid into a small saucepan over medium heat, making sure that all the pieces of the mirepoix, the neck and gizzards are added. Add more stock if needed and continue to reduce until the flavour is perfect. Add a small amount of beurre manié to thicken.
Strain and add chopped liver for the final sauce (optional).
Roast potatoes
Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place into cold salted water. Bring to the boil for about a minute and half, remove and place in a colander. This is important as the potatoes must get moved around to ruffle the edges and surfaces as this creates delicious crispy bits.
Place in a roasting pan, season with salt, pepper and paprika and sprinkle with picked rosemary or thyme. Roast in duck fat for about 40- 60 minutes depending on the size. Turn potatoes regularly to ensure even browning.

Gnudi.

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Spinach Ricotta Gnudi

This dumpling either Malfatti or called Gnudi…. essentially gnocchi, because of the rough look called Malfatti in Siena or Gnudi as it is called in Florence translating to naked basically without an outer dough like ravioli. We like serving it with a tomato sauce or a burnt sage butter with hazel nuts and more parmesan. In this recipe we have a lot more parmesan than in some, but then that is how we like it, cheesy. With a lot of the older recipes the egg is omitted as it is rested for longer in semolina before cooking forming a barrier. Use some of the liquid when finishing in the butter, gives some body to the sauce.

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Ingredients

200 g Ricotta Cheese
200 g Parmesan Cheese grated
180 g spinach sliced chiffonade or chopped very finely and cooked (steam or boil and drain well)
2 eggs
1 eggs yolk
1 Tbsp 15 ml fresh sage, chopped
1 Tbsp 15 ml fresh parsley, chopped
60 g flour
salt
white pepper
roughly ½ C 125 ml semolina
Sage Beurre Noisette
100-120 g butter
12-16 sage leaves
50-80 g macadamia nuts coarsely crushed and toasted
Parmesan shaved or grated as needed

Instructions

Gnudi (best made a day ahead)
Combine the Ricotta, Parmesan, spinach, eggs and egg yolk and chopped herbs. Fold in the flour and combine, add more flour if the mixture is too sticky (must be able to roll into balls). Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Line a dish that you can seal to refrigerate with a thin layer of a semolina. Portion the gnudi mixture and roll into equal sized balls. Roll the gnudi in extra semolina making sure each is coated. Place the gnudi into the dish with the layer of semolina, don’t let the gnudi touch each other or the sides of the container as they may stick. Refrigerate.
Repeat this step every 2-3 hours. Do this about six times. Remove from the semolina.
Sage Beurre Noisette
Method
Place the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan and heat, allow to bubble and froth. Do not burn, it should become nutty as the butter browns. Add the sage leaves and allow to cook and crisp up..
To cook the gnudi, bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Place the gnudi into the water until they rise to the surface and float (±2-3 minutes).
Remove from the water and gently coat in sage beurre noisette and top with crushed macadamia nuts. Serve with shaved or grated Parmesan.

GRILLED CHEESE ON SOUR DOUGH.

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GRILLED CHEESE ON SOUR DOUGH

Use any bread you like, I prefer a sour dough that I pre slice and defrost as I need for those late night cheats.

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon Soft Butter no margarine
2 slices 2cm Sliced Sourdough one to two days old
120 g Grated or sliced Healeys Mature Cheddar

Instructions

Heat a thick bottomed pan to a medium
Completely butter sour dough bread on both sides
Place both slices sour dough in pan and gently cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.
Turn over and place cheese on one, close and continue to cook until golden brown. Turn over abd cook other side until golden brown.
Cheese needs to melt.
Serve with pickles

DUCK CONFIT

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Duck Confit
Neville Lockhart Photography

Duck Confit

Soon to feature again in the lounge, firm favourite amongst the chefs in the kitchen, confit translates into preserved and is a simple process. Basically it is meat poached in fat and preserved in the same fat it was poached in. In olden times it was required and a necessity preserve and cook meat in such away, as fridges were not available, but in today’s time it has become an integral part of food and cuisine. We serve the confit with bean or lentil cassoulet and a root vegetable puree like celeriac.

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Ingredients

4 ea large duck leg and thigh 180 -200g each
+/- 50g course rock salt
1 tbsp crushed black pepper corns
6 cloves peeled garlic sliced thinly or crushed
5 bay leaves crushed
5 sprigs thyme picked
1 orange rind
star anise cloves and coriander seeds as needed
800 g duck fat

Instructions

n a tray distribute half the ingredients
Place legs on salt fat side facing down .
Distribute the remaining salt mix on top of duck.
Leave to marinade covered for 8 – 12 hours.
Wash off the salt and dry with paper towel.
Place the duck legs in a sauce pan or an oven dish.
Cover with the duck fat and cook for 4 – 6 hours in a preheated oven (82-92°C) can cook longer if required. Over cooking makes it mushy so be careful.
Ensure that you do not go over the set temperature the fat must be kept under a simmer.
If you are not using the duck immediately leave in the fat till required.
Remove duck when required
Place in pan and fry no need to add other oil it should take about 5 minutes depending on the size.
Finish in oven if needed.
It important to remember the fat on the duck must be crispy.
Drizzle with a little red wine vinegar before serving

CHICKEN & MUSHROOM PIE

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Chicken Pie www.crushmag-online.com

Chicken Pie

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Ingredients

500 g shortcrust pastry or puff pastry
50 ml egg wash
Chicken
1 whole large chicken
1 onion cut rough
1 celery stalk
1 leek
2 bay leaf
2 cloves
1 litter chicken stock
Filling
600 g Shredded chicken from whole chicken
400 g Chicken sauce
Chicken sauce
600 ml chicken stock
45 g Butter
45 g flour
60 g onion diced
60 g carrot diced
60 g celery diced
200 g Sliced mushroom
3 sprig thyme
1 small chillies
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 cloves garlic

Instructions

The recipe seems complicated but it is very simple, if pastry is not your thing buy some puff pastry.
As for the filling it is not necessary to use whole cooked chicken, roast or cooked cubed chicken will also work.
In this recipe we have shredded cooked chicken.
Depending on how moist you like your pie I would depend on the amount of sauce added to chicken.
Chicken
Place all together in a pot bring to a gentle simmer for 1 hour, remove chicken when cooked and allow to cool, continue cooking stock for another 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove meat from bone and shred into small pieces and set aside.
Sauce
Heat butter in thick bottomed sauce pan
Saute onion with carrot and celery with thyme and garlic.
Add sauteed mushroom.
Dust with flour and add stock
Continue to cook until flour is cooked out
Cool and combine when cool.
To make pie
Fill shallow 25-28cm shallow oven proof ceramic dish with chicken filling
Roll dough out to 2 – 3mm thickness on a floured surface
cut into thick strips 2.5 cm
lattice over pie
Brush with egg wash
Bake for 35 -40minutes at 185C until golden brown
Pastry
460g flour
pinch of salt
240g butter
30ml water
50ml egg wash
On a clean surface place flour add butter to the centre with water and salt and start rubbing the butter and flour together, knead into a smooth dough. Rest until needed. Roll out to about 2-3mm thickness with a 12cm diameter.

Peri Peri Liver Gatsby

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Peri Peri liver Gatsby Photo credit – www.crushmag-online.com

Chicken Liver Peri Peri Gatsby

A couple of years ago I did a post on peri-peri livers, I have used the same recipe, this was also posted on crush on line awhile ago. This is my favourite way to pig out, with fries, mayo on a bun.

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Ingredients

400 g Chicken livers cleaned and soaked in milk for one hour
120 g Seasoned flour salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, chilli powder optional
60 ml Peri-Peri oil
60 ml Butter
200 g Onions chopped
6 ea Garlic cloves crushed
100 ml White wine
80 ml White wine vinegar
2 ea Bay leaf
6 Thyme sprig
1 Clove
8 ea Chili
80 ml Peri-Peri oil
1 ea Lemon juice
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
2 tsp Paprika
1.2 kg Tomatoes chopped
20 -30 ml Tomato paste
10 -20 ml Worcestershire sauce
250 ml Chicken stock
Chopped parsley as needed
150 ml sour cream optional

Instructions

For the seasoned flour I have left it to the individuals discretion’s, I prefer adding a little more spice than the usual, for a cup of flour 1 tbsp of seasoning should be sufficient. You also do not have to dust the livers in the flour mixture.
If using livers that have been dusted in seasoned flour and fried it will make the sauce very thick when finishing off. This is optional. You can cook livers and just cover livers in sauce as well as an option
Clean livers and soak in milk for 1 hour, drain and pat dry.
Cut into half, and fry in Peri-Peri oil and butter do not over crowd pan and do in batches must be under cooked. Place one side until needed to finish.
For the sauce heat peri peri oil and sauté onions, garlic, chilli, bay leaf with clove. Cook over a moderate heat for about three minutes. De glaze with wine and vinegar, add tomatoes, tomato paste and remaining spices.
Cook out tomatoes, this should take about 40 -50 minutes and reduce sauce. Blend with a stick blender to a smooth sauce, this is optional.
Adjust seasoning and add Worcestershire sauce.
Add livers and cook through ensuring that it is not over cooked, livers still need to be a little pink on the inside.
Add chopped parsley and serve.
If cream is used add after tomatoes have been cooked out, simmer for an extra 5-10 minutes before adding livers.
Two baguettes or four foot long rolls
2 tomatoes sliced thinly
2 baby gem lettuce cleaned and washed or ice berg lettuce
100 ml mayonnaise
400g potato fries
Toast rolls
Butter rolls
Season tomato and lay on roll topped with lettuce
Top with livers
Top with fries
Add mayonnaise
Top on and serve

Notes

Photo credit – www.crushmag-online.com

Cornish Pastries

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Cornish
Photo Credit – www.crushmag-online.com

CORNISH PASTRIES

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Ingredients

PASTRY
460 g cake flour
pinch salt
240 g butter
30 ml water
1 egg wash
FILLING
60 ml butter
20 ml olive oil
460 g beef small cubed
Flour for dusting
1 large onion cubed
2 thyme sprigs
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
200 ml good-quality beef stock
2 carrot small cubed
2 turnip small cubed
Worcestershire sauce
10 ml flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
1 potato small cubes

Instructions

Traditionally the mixture was placed in the pastry raw, I prefer cooking the mixture prior.
For the pastry, sieve the flour and salt into a bowl or onto a tabletop. Make a large well and grate in the butter and add the water. Stir until absorbed. Knead the pastry until smooth and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.
To make the filling, melt the butter with the olive oil in a frying pan and fry off beef that has been dusted in flour. Remove and set aside.
In the same frying pan, add the onion, thyme and season.
Add enough stock to moisten and bring to simmer, making sure that the mixture is not thick. Add the carrot, turnip and potato. Bring back to a simmer. Adjust the seasoning and mix in the Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle with the parsley and cool before use
To make the pasties, roll out the pastry to about 4mm – 5mm thick and cut into 6 rounds of 15cm.
Preheat the oven to 200*C
Dampen the edges with water and bring the sides of the pastry together to make a parcel. Support the pastry with your left hand and, using your forefinger and thumb, turn the edge over and at the same time twist it, crimping it together so that it resembles a rope.
Place on a baking tray with the crimped edge facing the top. Brush with milk or egg wash and make a small hole to release the steam. Bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 180 *C and bake for another 15 minutes.

Notes

COOKING TIPS
• Grating the butter makes it easier to rub into the flour.
• Pasties can be frozen raw, then defrosted and baked when required

Photo Credit – www.crushmag-online.com