Food Tattoos

Sure, we say we love food. We eat, we cook, we read, we pontificate and we blog. But these fine-feathered food fanatics have taken the next step- and branded food permanently on their bodies. Ranging from interesting and funky (see: little mexican mouse on flying corn cob) to the downright bizzarre (see: nightmare cheeseburger with bulging eyeballs) these tattoos really have you asking yourself: if there was a food tattoo I was going to get- what would it be? Feel free to answer this yourselves.. Although I will probably never get one- due to my very very low pain threshold- many of these tattoos are indeed "guilty of being delicious".

mushu chicken

Here's a good recipe for home-made mushu chicken. Basically its like a stir fry of shredded ingredients served with thin chinese pancakes. You can't really go wrong with any other meat / veggies as long as their chopped finely and fried with egg, cabbage and mushrooms- which tend to be in any mushu's that I've ever eaten. If you don't have the correct pancakes- you can substitute with thin tortillias (shhhh!!!!) but it just ain't the same. This is serious comfort food.

Ingredients

1/2 Wombok cabbage, shredded
2 cups mushrooms- dried/sliced
1 can straw mushrooms
3 eggs
1 can sliced bamboo shoots
3 cups bean sprouts
6 chicken thigh fillets
1/2 cup mirin
4 tbsp soya
4 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp ketchup manis (sweet soy)
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
Pepper

Method

1. Shred all ingredients finely. Re-hydrate dried and sliced mushrooms in boiling water. Heat the wok with the veggie oil, and throw the chicken in. Toss and brown, then add 2 tbsp soya and garlic.

2. When the chicken is 4/5 cooked through, throw in the mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and the oyster sauce. Stir and fry for a couple minutes. Then add the cabbage, and the bean shoots, along with the mirin, stir quickly and leave to fry without stirring for 2 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the ketchup manis. Fry in a separate pan over high heat making a sort of egg-only pancake. Flip and cook other side. Break into small shreds with spatula, and add to the wok.

4. Stir ingredients, there will be a little liquid in the bottom of the wok. You can either drain everything and discard that, or thicken it with 1/2 tbsp of cornstarch with water. Remeber it should be moist but not runny, honey.

Serve with hoisin sauce, long onion pieces cucumber strips on the side, and chinese pancakes of course!

balsamic lentils

I found these amazing french lentils at D'elish store in Lindfield. When I went for the tasting of my wedding dinner, one of the courses had a confit quail leg sitting on a mound of chewy, flavoursome green lentils. Ever since then the concept has stuck with me, and trust me, these are mind blowing with the fresh orange peel and a great quality balsamic vinegar. For less chewy lentils, cook them slightly longer, but be sure not to overcook or you might invent balsamic dhal. I served this with crispy skinned salmon on mash- the lentils added the perfect amount of acidity and citrus to cut through the richness of the main ingredients.

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cups french green lentils
1 litre Fond de Veau (Veal stock)
1/2 cup aged balsamic vinegar (only the best will do)
3 Orange peelings
1 Whole clove of garlic
2 Bay leafs
1 tbsp ground black pepper

Method

1.Put the lentils and the stock in a pan with a bay leaf and bring to the boil. (do NOT add salt at this point)

2. Boil for 7 minutes, stirring. Then cover the pot, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the lentils are just chewable. Strain the stock into another pot, rinse the lentils in cold water and put aside.

3. In the stock, add the pepper, whole garlic clove, balsamic, and bay leaf. Reduce this by at least 1/2, add the orange peelings and salt to taste, and cook for another 3-5 minutes. At this stage it should be a bit syrupy and dark.

4. Strain this and add to the lentils before serving.

NB Vegetable stock can be used for vegetarians

hubba hubba

This creamy, strangely satisfying and healthy dip is made from hummous- the lebanese word for chickpeas. In the can you just drain and not cook- but you must cook if your using from dry. Serve with the freshest lebanese breads,drizzle with good quality olive oil, and a pinch of paprika or sumac.

Hummous

4 cans Chick Peas - drained
1 jar tahini
2 big lemons- just the juice
5 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cup greek yoghurt

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Chill
overnight in the fridge.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Here's a snapling of my "rustic" (messy + easy) bread and butter pudding that just brims over with ooey gooey bread and crispy sultanas. If you want you can glaze it after with some warmed apricot jam or honey- but i like it slightly burnt and au naturelle.

Indredients:

6 eggs
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 cups full cream milk (2%)
6 crusty bread rolls (like hot dog rolls but not the crap kind)
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup rum
50 g butter, sliced thinly

Method:

1. Put the raisins in the rum to macerate and plumpen overnight.

2. Whisk eggs, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Put the milk on to boil.

3. Cut the rolls in 1-inch pieces.

4. Pour the milk slowly into the eggs whisking rapidly. Voila custard.

5. Dunk the bread in the custard, make sure it absorbs a bunch of custard. Place in buttered baking pan, with the brown bits toward the top but on an angle so that you see white too. Fill the whole pan with the soaked bread.

5. Take the slices of butter and insert randomly between bread slices. Do the same with the raisins, sprinkling on top too. Pour over any remaining custard. You can make more if you like it runnier. This recipe makes it just so that the bread sticks together, with no runny custard.

6. Bake at 200 until golden and there are some dark brown bits.

Serve warm with pouring custard, or vanilla ice cream.

little foodies

OK I know this isn't a recipe or review, but look how cute they are!!!! This is an ad for Wrigley's Extra gum, where the food the main character has eaten follows him around all day - literally. The animation is fantastic. I cant wait for them to make actual toys out of these things so they can follow me around too!!

Mustard Pickles

By far my favorite Australian condiment - Mustard Pickles. I finally found some fresh turmeric and decided to put it to good use. These taste sour, sweet, pungent and have a hint of curry that just lifts all the flavours. I like mine chunky so i left the chunks in, but usually its 3/4 blended to form a smooth spreadable paste. Its up to you.

1 Large Daikon (white) Radish
1 large stalk of fresh turmeric (or 1 tbsp dry)
1 large red onion
8 dry black peppercorns
1 tbsp salt
3-4 cups vinegar - depending on the size of ur daikon
2 cups sugar
2 heaped tbsp mustard powder
1 heaps tsp curry powder

Method
1. Peel the daikon and chop into a fine mince. Do the same with the onion. Get a piece of parchment on your board, and peel the end of the turmeric. Wash the peeler straight away. Grate the turmeric on the finest grater you have, and wash the grater straight away (or everything will be stained yellow for life!!)

2. Put all the ingredients in a big pot and pour in the vinegar. It should come 3/4 of the way up the ingredients. Then pu in the peppercorns, salt, and sugar. Turn the heat on low and simmer for 30 min, stirring now and then.

3. You are looking for the sauce to have reduced down and become thicker, and all the pieces should be an even tone of yellow and cooked through. Add a splash more vinegar at this stage and whiz half the mixture in the food processor or with the wand.

4. Let it cool completely in the pot and transfer to glass jars. If you're jarring them they will last for years. But like me if you can't be bothered just put it in a jar and eat it up in the next couple weeks! : )

Shabu Shabu

I often make shabu-shabu as a quick and easy dinner- the only important bit is having all the ingredients you want in your fridge! At home, in the Japanese culture every family and home has their own favorites as to what they put in their shabu. Firstly- a shabu is a soup, or hotpot cooked on a gas cooker at the table. This way your family can add the raw ingredients as they like and eat them while they cook. So you start with a soup base- which consists of dashi, soya sauce (just a drop), and cooking sake. I like to add mirin for sweetness. This gets boiled up on the stove and transferred to the pan on the little cooker. Next you have raw ingredients, which you put in plates around the cooker. The main staple at all shabus is the paper-thin shaved beef. You can get this at most korean or japanese grocery stores in the freezer section. Don't thaw, because it only takes about 5 minutes to become room temperature. Then I add english spinach cut into 1-inch pieces, same with the long onions, Big hunks of silken tofu, re-hydrated sliced mushrooms (don't try for the whole mushrooms they take forever!) I like to add these but their not typical shabu- fish tubes, sliced fish cake, chopped red chilli, sliced garlic, and sometimes pickles. Experiment with what you love to eat in soups. I served this with bowls of rice and dipping sauces- one soy based and the other sesame based. In japan they have sukiyaki as well, which is served with a raw egg for dipping. Really, the only time it takes is to boil the broth, put the rice cooker on and chop ingredients - which has never taken me more than 20 min all together.

Chairman Meow

I encountered these yum cha catnip toys today while browsing for dumplings. Meowlicious!

Green Olives - DIY

I thought I would post about the olives I make every year when you find them raw in fruit shops. After buying 6 kilos of raw green olives from Woolies in Chullora, I found myself wondering what the heck to do with them. I looked at recipes online and made my own version based on the good bits of maybe 10 recipes... Hope this works for you as well as it has for me. You need 2 Plastic buckets- I use two office paper bins, that have been sterilized by pouring boiling water on the inside. Then you wash the olives well, discarding any with imperfections. You make a vertical cut in each olive, from stem to the base and as deep as the pit. Fill the buckets 2/3 way with water, and in that dissolve 2 cups or so of sea salt. Divide the olives in these containers. With a large plate, face down, push this on the top of the olives until they are all submerged to the bottom with about 2-3 inches of the brine on top. Every night for the next 14 days you have to Pour out all the water, (holding the plate while tipping out the liquid) rinse them with fresh water, then fill again and stir in the 2 cups of salt. Do NOT attempt to eat any untill at least day 12- and even then it will be very bitter. While they ferment, there will be variations in colour and some residue will form on the surface. If when you press the olives and they are really squishy in some areas, these have gone rotten. Check to make sure others havent rotted in the same way- if they have then you must throw the whole thing away. They will get softer, but not disintigrating. When day 14 rolls around, put the olives into jars after rinsing, with no liquid. Then make a brine with 1:1 water to white vinegar, and some salt dissolved in. Boil this and pour into the sterilized jars. The longer you leave this the better they will be! I suggest waiting a minimum of 3 months.