How to: microwave pappadums

July 25, 2012 - Alex 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted a list of microwave food hacks.

It’s not right to post them without testing them out. Let’s start at the bottom of the list: microwaving pappadums.

Traditionally pappadums are cooked in hot oil. You take the little chickpea based wafers, you take a ton of superheated peanut oil and you give them a quick blast. In theory, this isn’t fattening because the oil is so hot that the pappadum doesn’t actually absorb any.

If you’ve ever eaten a pappadum you know that that’s a fair bit of rubbish!

We’ve long been fans of microwaving pappadums (you do, literally, just pop the pappadum in the microwave on some kitchen towel and give it a quick blast on high on both sides) but while they’re tasty they’re only a pale approximation of the real thing.

So when I read that you could brush your pappadum with oil (or melted ghee) before microwaving for a more ‘authentic’ finish I had to give it a go.

I brushed both sides of the pappadum with peanut oil before placing on kitchen towel and microwaving on high. With the oil on the pappadum needed longer than usual (that is, without) but it still needed rotating and flipping.

Combining this extra cooking time with the bother of brushing the things with oil … was it all worth it?

No.

The pappadums didn’t expand the way they do in hot oil – they just stayed small and the microwaving clearly didn’t get the oil nearly hot enough, so they ended up covered with a slick of grease. It was really the worst of both worlds: the oiliness of a pappadum cooked in not hot enough oil combined with the slight raw flour taste you get when you microwave them.

So in future, we’ll be spending the time perfecting our frying technique (get the oil super hot!) when we’ve got time, or using the microwave (without oil) when we’re in a hurry.

Thai Fish Curry Recipe

July 20, 2012 - Alex 1 Comment

While living in England I was lucky (or skilled!) enough to have a recipe published in The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook. Recipes, using Fairtrade ingredients, were submitted from across the UK and the best were published alongside those of celebrities and chefs. The launch party was also excellent.

However, aside from me showing off my recipe to anyone with the time to look, the book has been underutilised. As part of my new weekly meal planning regime (something which is making life very easy indeed), I’m choosing a random recipe from a random cookbook each week.

Last week it was the Thai fish curry which was submitted by Karen Darnton from Somerset. This recipe is a brilliant example of how easily you can make a tasty Thai style curry without resorting to jars or packets.

Begin by making the curry paste. Into a blender, put two red chillis, the juice and zest of one lime, 2 stalks of lemongrass* (roughly chop these first, and the younger and more tender the better), a generous teaspoon of ginger paste, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 small onion (peeled and roughly chopped), one finely sliced kaffir lime leaf (my addition because I happen to have some in the freezer – leave it out if you don’t have any to hand) and a good splash of Thai fish sauce.

Whizzy this up and you have your paste. This you can make in advance – it will keep quite happily in the fridge in a sealed container for a day or two.

When you’re ready to eat, heat a wok with a small amount of oil (peanut oil or other neutrally flavoured oil) and, when hot, add the curry paste and stir fry for a couple of minutes. You want the pan hot so that it sizzles, and you’ll need to stir to stop it from sticking.

Add a tin of coconut milk, mix well and bring to a simmer.

Next – add your fish. The original recipe used cod, I used barramundi (my barra had the skin on – and normally I would advocate this – but for this recipe, prefer skin off). You want a firm white fish that won’t collapse. You could also use prawns or even chicken thighs (although then it would be a Thai chicken curry …). If using fish, choose Australian and sustainably fished.

Simmer the curry until the fish is cooked.

The original recipe at this point starts adding things like mango or pineapple to the curry but that’s not how I roll, at all. I added a single serve of hokkien noodles to the pot and simmered away until the noodles were separated and hot. So now I had some kind of cross between curry and laksa.

Finally, taste the sauce and add fish sauce or lime juice as required.

Finish with a garnish of coriander and serve immediately.

While this was not the most complex (or, probably, authentic!) Thai curry I’ve ever eaten it certainly ticked all the mid-week meal boxes. Prep in advance, quick to assemble when you’re ready to eat, and tasty to boot. Definitely one we’ll return to.

* As an aside, lemongrass freezes. If you buy a packet from the supermarket, freeze the leftover stems in a snaplock bag. They defrost quickly. Freezing does make them a little tough so be sure to remove the outer layers before using.

Chocolate and Wine Tasting

July 19, 2012October 6, 2021 - Alex Leave a comment

Disclaimer: I was a guest at the masterclass, hosted by chocoMe and the National Wine Centre.

Date of masterclass: Wed 11 July 2012

Chocolate and wine sounds like it should be a match in heaven but in reality it’s a lot harder to pull off than you’d imagine. Chocolate, with its sweetness, its strong flavours and its mouth coating quality, is a tough ask for most wines. Check out the best vineyard in Oregon for any requirement that you might have.

I guess if anyone is going to succeed pairing chocolate and wine it should be the National Wine Centre, so I was really interested (and keen and excited!) to be invited along to a class, hosted by the National Wine Centre’s Lucy Harrland and Andrea and Laszlo Simko, who run chocoMe.

chocoMe has been running here in South Australia for less than a year and already has quite a following. Andrea and Laszlo arrived from Hungary (choosing Adelaide over Melbourne – hooray!) and started the business making some very boutique chocolates. They use Callebaut chocolate from Belgium as the base and then add a wonderful (and sometimes weird!) range of toppings.

At the masterclass we tasted five chocoMe chocolates, paired with South Australian wines. We started with a white chocolate, dried with freeze dried strawberries and gold leaf, paired with the Croser NV Sparkling. The idea here was to match the red berry fruit flavours of the Pinot Noir based Croser with the strawberry in the chocolate. The high acidity in the sparkling wine helps to cut through the richness of the white chocolate. The chocoMe white chocolate contains cocoa butter, not palm oil (which is what you’ll find in cheaper white chocolates) and the sweetness comes from vanilla bourbon rather than sugar. Perhaps when combined with the strawberry this means that it’s almost a health food …

Next up was milk chocolate with crystallised ginger and lemon myrtle which was paired with a Pike and Joyce Pinot Gris. This chocolate was Lucy’s own design and this pairing was definitely the match of the evening for me. I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate, and I’m very picky about Pinot Gris, so I was really expecting to find it a bit ho-hum. But the Pinot Gris picked up on the spicy, peppery character of the ginger and gave it an incredible longevity on the palate. Apparently this chocolate was originally paired with an aged Riesling which I can’t imagine working nearly as well. Another good option might be a spicy Gewürztraminer.

This was followed by a Langmeil Rosé paired with milk chocolate with Murray River salt and caramel. Apparently Murray River salt isn’t as salty as sea salt – and I’ll trust Andrea on this one because she tasted a ridiculous number of salts to get the right flavour in combination with the chocolate and caramel. That’s dedication for you …

Our last two chocolates were dark chocolate (finally!): a dark chocolate with raspberry, strawberry and rose fragments paired with the Riposte Pinot Noir and a dark chocolate with raspberry, pistachio and pink peppercorns paired with the Yelland and Papps Shiraz.

The Pinot Noir pairing was, for me, the weakest of the evening, but I was very much in the minority there. The pink peppercorns with the Shiraz was a much better match and the two chocolates were on a par – and both my favourites of the evening.

We wrapped up the evening with a chocolate bar (see below) so we could sample even more chocoMe chocolates.

The National Wine Centre runs many events throughout the year (most of them are listed on the Eating Adelaide calendar) and the chocolate and wine classes are run once a month on a Saturday afternoon. The next is running on Saturday 21 July at 3 pm. Bookings are essential.

chocoMe chocolates are available at the National Wine Centre and various gourmet food shops around Adelaide. The full list of retail outlets is on the website. At present, Andrea and Laszlo don’t have their own shop – they’re too busy focussing on product development!