Category Archives: Cooking international

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sticky date pudding

  1. Dates 200g
  2. Hot water to soak 300g
  3. Baking soda/ soda bicarb- 5 g

After 30 mins blend to a thick paste with a stick blender.

Don’t put too much bicarb otherwise will taste horrible.

  • Whisk 3 eggs with
  • Sugar 200 g
  • Vanilla essence

When thick add

  • Melted butter 50 g
  • Oil -40 g

Add date paste and fold in carefully

Flour 225 g+ baking powder 5 g

Steam or bake for 20 mins – 175 C.

Steaming makes a softer and lighter product.

Can scale this to go up to a batch multiplied by 10. We make this at work for 300 people .

Great with a salted caramel butterscotch sauce .

 

 

 

Cooking Asian, Cooking international

Kukula Kari

S as anpice mix

  • Cardamom 2 g/ 1/2 t
  • Cinnamon stick -1 small one /1 g
  • Cloves – 2g
  • Peppercorns 1 t/ 3 g can double it if you can handle the heat.
  • Dry coconut – 50 g
  • Bayleaf-1-2
  • Coriander seeds -1T.
  • Fennel seeds – 5 g/ 1 t
  • Dry red chilli – 1-2/ 5 g

Toast coconut in the microwave .when lightly browned add rest of the spices and toast yet again for upto 1.5 mins .

Cool down and grind. It should be a darkish coloured powder.

  • Chicken thighs boneless or bone in skin off – 1 kg
  • Goraka extract / tamarind/ lemone juice – 10 ml
  • Turmeric -1 t/ 5 g
  • Chilli powder -10 g/ 2 t
  • Salt
  • Oil-25 g
  • Chopped onions – 250 g
  • Crushed tomatoes – 150 g
  • Crushed garlic-25 g
  • Crushed ginger – 20 g
  • Coconut cream – 200 ml
  1. Heat oil, saute the onion till light browned.
  2. Add the chicken and the spice mix.
  3. Add the crushed tomatoes coconut cream ginger and garlic and simmer on low for 30-3 min.
  4. Best eaten the next day with some hoppers/ appam or porotta.
Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Hot cross buns – one a penny two a penny.

♦This hot cross bun comes from the pastry maestro Angelo Roche, who was our batch coordinator and trainer many many many moons back in 1994.. I was able to catch up with him again when i moved to Sydney from Aotearoa.

There are 2 parts to the recipe, nay 3 including  the cross on the top

The Tanzhong- cooked starch paste- which makes them soft and fluffy.

  • water- 65g
  • milk -60 g
  • flour – 25 g

mix well together and microwave for 30 seconds or if you have a fancy 30k Rational Combi oven steam it there for 5 minutes. The idea is to have a cooked starch paste as the base for the recipe, which then makes the buns super soft and increases shelf life.

The next part has

  • tangzhong- 120 g-
  • milk-120 g
  • milk powder-7 g
  • sugar-35 g
  • yeast- 6 g
  • raisins- 100 g or mix of raisins , currants and mixed peel.
  • flour- 350 g
  • allspice- 1 g
  • cinnamon- 1g
  • Butter 30 g soft
  • cardamom- pinch
  • egg- 1 ea
  • salt- 5g

Mix warm tangzhong , with milk flour and yeast and set aside to bubble bubble boil and trouble.

Hehe no incantations required just cos it’s a rich dough do need to activate the yeast a bit more really.

Then add  everything else except salt and butter, which goes in the end .

Form the dough, keep it covered in a warmish place ..you know the drill.

Once proofed, knock back, divide into equal sizes -(50 g ) each roughly and arrange on a baking tray close to each other .

For the third part cos the power of three shall set us free.

  • Flour 250 g
  • Oil 75 g
  • Water 300 g

Mix oil and flour and then add water to form a smooth paste which can be piped.

Pipe horizontally on the buns , then vertically.

proof till nearly doubled in size, brush with egg wash. and bake in preheated oven at 180 C for 12-15 mins.

 

 

 

 

Cooking indian, Cooking international

Crab or prawn tortellini

This is a kid of a pleasant fusion recipe i want to make and have made before using prawns..

  • Crabmeat or chopped prawn – 425 g approximately
  • wonton wrappers- 1 small packet
  • egg 1/2 to seal edges of pastry above
  • onion – 50 g/ 1/2 a medium brown / yellow onion
  • oil-10 ml
  • mustard seeds-1/4 tsp
  • curry leaves- 1/2 sprig stripped and shredded
  • ricotta or cream cheese- 30-40 g to bind the meat and keep moist
  • Basil and coriander – to embellish , chop and make your crab even more sexy
  • ,Heat oil, add mustard seeds and crackle them, then add chopped onion and saute with the curry leaves
  • Add your crabmeat or chopped prawns and take off the heat..
  • Add in ricotta and herbs and mix well.
  • The next bit is tricky but with practice easy to do.Take each wonton sheet/ wrapper and brush with beaten egg. Put a small piece of filling in the centre and fold into a trinagular shape and seal the edges. Then turn the two edges of the triangle to the back and stick to each other to form the classical tortellini shape.
  • Poach in boiling salted water and serve as is or with a moilee sauce
Cooking indian, Cooking international

Barbacoa with roasted coconut and chettinad spice rub

This version of meat comes from a transmogrified version of a Barbacoa, but flavoured with traditional south Indian spice mix where they would shudder at the mere thought of the holy cow tainting the spices .Never mind the fact that the neighbouring state Kerala has plenty of Beef Pepper fry .

But never mind we must go boldly where no man has gone before . We will then take it further and serve this rich spice laden stupedous concoction and put it in a bao or a sourdough bun or even a dosa .Our recipe serves 4 hungry people or more if you only serve it as finger food

Beef rump or similar-600 g
For the marinade
Yoghurt- 2 TB/55 gms approximately
Turmeric – 1/4 tsp , 2 gms
Ginger and Garlic paste- 2 t /10 gms
Salt- 1
For the gravy
Oil- 1T /20 gm
Curry leaves- 1 sprig/ 1 gms
green chilli- 2 ea/ 5 gms
Onions brown peeled and chopped-250 gms
Tomato crushed/ Tomato passata – 75 gms
coriander powder- 1 t/ 5gm
cumin powder- 1/2 t / 2 gm
chipotle chilli – 5 gms-
coconut cream- 100 ml
For the dry spice mix
Cardamom green- 3 ea
Cloves- 2
cinnamon stick – 1 small
Bayleaf- 1/2- The indian bayleaf is actually a cassia cinnamon leaf called tej patta, if you dont have that then use bay,
dessicated coconut- 1T/ 15 gms
peppercorns- 8-10
star anise/anasi poo- 1/2
fennel seeds- 1/2 t
Dagadphool/Kalpasi- 1-2 gms this gives it a unique aroma
Toast all in the microwave and then grind to a coarse mix
Method.
Marinate beef, ideally overnight, if pressed for time then atleast a few hours.
for the gravy, heat oil add curry leaves , and green chilli and then the chopped onions, sand saute till brown
add the powder spices and tomato and cook till the oil starts to separate from the mix.

Garnish with toasted sliced coconut ..