Gazpacho

I was first served gazpacho by my family in Provence, a couple of years ago when I visited after a conference. Naturally it was achingly hot outside, which is the perfect time, perhaps the only time, for cold soup. But this gazpacho is far tastier than that sounds! I could not believe how refreshing and zingy it was, and now I've finally replicated it down under, I'm looking forward to whizzing it up whenever I need a light and refreshing lunch.

Ingredients

• 500g fresh tomatoes
• half a cucumber
• a red pepper
• a slice of bread, preferably stale
• a clove of garlic
• 1tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 50ml wine vinegar
• 50ml olive oil
• a fresh chilli (optional)
• basil leaves, Tabasco, pepper, olive oil to serve

Cut off the stem bits of the tomato, pepper, chilli if using, and skin and crush the garlic. Chuck everything in a liquidiser and pulse until well blended. Serve in little glasses with little spoons, topped with basil leaves, and with extra olive oil, black pepper and Tabasco on hand to add to taste.

Peking Duck Pancakes

After eating all the nice crispy legs and wings yesterday, we were left with two lovely cooked duck breasts. I had a huge craving for duck with pancakes, so dropped by the Oriental Supermarket on the way home to see if they had the right kind of pancakes. Sadly, they did not. So I picked up a kilo of rice flour and some Peking Duck sauce, and headed home to get cooking!

Googling for duck pancake recipes, I found that many chefs simply made French-style crepes, which I have indeed done before for this meal. But I really felt like the floury, slightly chewy, aromatic rice pancakes you get in Chinese restaurants. I found a great recipe on Youtube by VideoJug showing exactly how to make them at home, and since the whole process was new to me, I followed the recipe exactly. I was absolutely amazed at the results - a stack of wafer-thin rice pancakes, aromatic with sesame oil, ever so slightly caramelised in places and wonderfully soft and flexible. It did take an hour or so the first time, but I think I could make these a lot faster with some practice. I tried to speed things up by using the breadmaker but actually it didn't save any time as the dough was very sticky and got stuck in the paddle.

To go with, I stir-fried a couple of spring onions with a large bunch of pak choi (stalks for 1-2 minutes, then leaves with a splash of soy sauce). The duck we simply shredded; we deseeded and sliced a cucumber and chopped up some coriander. I don't like raw spring onion in my duck pancakes :)

I'll recap the pancake recipe here but the video is worth a watch for a nice clear demonstration. This makes enough for about 4-5 people, or 8 for a starter. We froze the extras.

My pancake-making set-up, with tea-towels temporarily folded
back to show the uncooked (left) and cooked (right) pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 300 g flour - I used half rice, half plain white (wheat)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 240 ml boiling water
• 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, combined
• some flour for dusting

Mix the flour, sugar and water together until it forms a sticky dough. Generously sprinkle the dough with some flour, dust the work surface with more flour, and spoon the dough into the flour. Fold the dough and knead it for a few minutes. Don't be afraid to add more flour to the dough, if necessary, as it might still be too sticky. Continue to knead until the dough takes on a smooth, non sticky, elastic consistency. Finally, cover it with a clean, damp tea towel and set it aside for 30 minutes, to rest. (I only left it for 15 minutes and it was fine.)

The finished stack, with shredded duck, sliced cucumber,
chopped fresh coriander,  a ramekin of Peking duck sauce,
and bowls of stir-fried pak choi.

Uncover the dough and cut it in half. Rub the rolling pin with flour and roll one half into a thin sheet of about 1/2 cm in thickness. Repeat exactly the same process with the other piece. (I thought this sounded thick, but it's fine, you'll roll it again in a minute!)

Take one sheet and cut it into circles using a 7cm biscuit cutter or the rim of a large mug. Take off the excess pastry but do not discard. You can roll it again later. Now brush each circle with a little bit of oil. Place one disk on top of the other, with their oiled sides together, to create a pair and repeat exactly the same process with the other half of the dough. It's vital to cover with a damp tea towel to retain the moisture.

Re- flour the working surface. Take each pair and using your rolling pin, roll them out to make them paper thin. Repeat until all of the pairs are rolled flat. Then cover again to retain the moisture.

Place the frying pan onto a medium-high heat and allow it to get very hot. Do not add any oil. When the pan is hot enough, add a pancake. Let it cook for about 1.5 minutes, until it begins to look char-grilled and slightly inflated. Then turn it over and cook other side. Remove it from the pan and separate it into two pancakes. You may want to leave it for a minute or so as they are very hot. This method of cooking gives one slightly charred side, and a moist side. It also gives the pancakes more flavour and the dough is more elastic. Repeat with the rest of the pancakes. As soon as you remove a pancake from the pan, put it on top of the stack and keep the stack covered with a tea towel so it doesn't dry out.

BBQ Challenge Week: Day 7: Beef Skewers

Another day at home, still a bit ill :-/ Fortunately the super-husband had time to pop to the butcher's and buy some nice honey-glazed beef skewers, which BBQd a treat! They were well-marinaded so plain white rice and a simple cucumber and feta salad were fine accompaniments. (Super-husband is into his Thai-Greek fusion food ;)

Roast Aubergine Wedges

It's too hot to eat 'properly'. I just want sliced vegetables, dipped in hummus and duqqa. But I also want aubergines, roasted and meltingly soft. So - I made some - just sliced a very large aubergine into edges, tossed them in olive oil, ground black pepper and ground coriander, then roasted them for fifty minutes at 200 C, until caramelised and delicious. In future I'll need to make these on the barbeque, so as to avoid heating the house by running the oven... a new antipodean challenge!

Rice Paper Rolls

I was amazed to find that I hadn't yet blogged this recipe, as it's become such a family favourite over the last few years. It's a meal best prepared by two or three people, as there are many stages that can be performed in parallel. After a couple of times making it, you'll find it takes less than an hour, and it's also a lot of fun!

Rice paper can be purchased in Asian grocery stores - usually one pack is enough for eight people, and costs only a few pounds / dollars. The rolls end up being about as long as half the diameter of the rice paper, so if you want small ones, buy small rice paper; large, buy large!

You can use whatever dipping sauce you like; I often use satay, but hoisin, plum or even just a little light soy sauce would all work perfectly. The filling ingredients can also be varied easily, and you don't need to make all of them the same. We often serve these rolls with hameul pajeon in a kind of Pan-Asian feast, but they work equally well with steamed rice or a light Asian-style salad, or just alone (and preferably, a bit smaller than shown here) as starters.

Instead of giving a guide to making an exact number of rolls (impossible!), I give examples of fillings, which you can use in equal volumes and just scale how much you cook depending on how many people you have. Don't feel like you need to include all of the ingredients, just pick the flavours you feel like using. The ones in the picture use carrot, cucumber, rice noodles, tonkatsu, mint and coriander.

Filling ingredients:

• fresh herbs: mint, coriander, basil
• cool crisp shredded vegetables: carrot, cucumber, lettuce
• protein: tonkatsu, cold shredded beef, crispy duck, cold lemon chicken, deep-fried marinaded tofu, fresh tofu, tamagoyaki (sweet Japanese omelette), cooked shitake mushrooms, cooked prawns
• carbs: cold rice, cold coconut rice, cold sweet rice, thick azuki bean paste, cooked rice noodles, fried rice noodles

You will also need:

• a stack of dry rice paper rounds
• hot water (boil a kettle and leave for at least 30 seconds)
• a frying pan, deep enough to take some hot water and wide enough to easily place in and remove the rice paper
• soft tongs, a wide slotted spatula, or asbestos fingers
• two large, clean, flat plates

Start by preparing all of your ingredients - wash and pick leaves from herbs, shred the vegetables, cook your protein and ready your carbs. It's helpful to arrange these in small bowls or plates around the work surface where you will be making the rolls. Prepare any dipping sauces ahead; chill if needed.

Pour hot water into your frying pan and place a single rice paper round in it. Leave for 30 seconds or so, until malleable, then remove using the tongs, spatula, or just your fingers. If it tears easily as you remove it, you have left it in too long, so discard and leave the next one in for less time. If it is not easily flexible and malleable, put it back in. If the water goes cold, discard it and refresh with new hot water. If you run out of water, top it up! It's really nice to have one person readying rice paper and one or two others filling the rolls.

Place the ready rice paper round on one of the plates and add your fillings. I found this beautiful guide to rolling them perfectly, so check it out if you're not sure how much to add or how to roll. When it's all rolled up, place on the other plate. If you need to wait before serving them, make sure to sprinkle them with water and cover with cling film, or cover with a very damp teatowel, so that they don't dry out. They will last several hours unserved, but if you refrigerate them over night, the rice paper has a tendency to stick to itself, so they may tear as you pull them apart. If you really needed to keep them and not let them tear, you could put cling film between each one, but it's a bit of a waste of plastic :) Just eat them and enjoy!

Tofu, Asparagus, Cucumber and Lentil Salad

Sometimes you just want a meal of really clean, crisp flavours, preferably without any meat or milk. Just delicious, nutritious things which can be cooked quickly. This really fits the bill!

Ingredients:

• a block of firm tofu enough for two (about 350g)
• a cucumber
• two handfuls of puy lentils
• a handful of toasted cashew nuts or peanuts
• a handful of alfalfa or other sprouts
• a handful of cooked asparagus or green beans, cold, sliced
• bright, fresh herbs, like basil, mint, coriander or dill
• juice of a lemon
• olive oil

Cube the tofu and shallow-fry it for a few minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Meanwhile, boil the lentils - they usually take 20-25 minutes. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, then cube. Dice the herbs. When the tofu is cooled and the lentils are cooked, drain them and toss everything together, along with the lemon juice and olive oil. Taste for seasoning. You could probably chill this for a day or two, minus the olive oil, but it was devoured quickly at our house!

Bulghur Wheat and Mango Salad

The weather has gone a bit crazy, with highs of 33 C here in Cambridge, which is pretty unusual. As a result it's impossible to contemplate cooking for any length of time, or eating anything at all hot. Tonight we use a delicate and fragrant Alphonso mango from the market in a salad adapted from one of Nigel Slater's recipes in the Observer Food Monthly. Lovely and refreshing, with a cob of hot buttered corn to munch as contrast.

Ingredients:

• 200g bulghur wheat
• 2-3 spring onions
• 1 large very ripe mango
• 8 bushy sprigs mint 
• small bunch parsley
•  ½ a small  cucumber
• 8-10 radishes
• juice of 1 lemon
• olive oil

Simmer the bulghur wheat for 15 minutes until tender, or cook according to the packet instructions, then drain and leave to cool. Finely slice the spring onions, dice the mango, and roughly chop the herbs. Peel and deseed the cucumber, then cube. Finely slice the radishes. Toss all the ingredients together with the lemon juice and olive oil; chill for half an hour if desired.

Cucumber and Celery Salad

A bottom-of-the-fridge side dish affair, helpful as we are existing on storecupboard stocks as we were away and couldn't shop at the weekend. I like this sort of challenge! If you're feeling greedy, or if your feta hasn't mutated into a weird festering orange thing, you can use feta instead of celery.

Ingredients:

• Two stalks of celery
• A quarter of a cucumber
• a handful of mint leaves
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• juice of half a lemon
• splash of olive oil

Dice the celery and cucumber into bite-sized pieces, finely chop the mint leaves, and combine in a bowl with the other ingredients. Serve with something hot and spicy by way of contrast.