Sweet Rosewater Lassi

Lassi is a sweet or spicy drink originally from the Punjab region of the Indian sub-continent. It’s very quick and easy to make. No hassle at all. It is made by blending yoghurt with water, salt, and spices (depending on the type of lassi) until the drink becomes frothy.

Ingredients:

1. Combine 500 ml (2 cups) buttermilk or yogurt with 500 ml (2 cups) water. You can use a blender or whip it with a whisk, it really doesn’t make much difference.
2. Add 30 g (2 tbsp.) sugar, 1 tsp. rose water and a couple of drops of the food colouring.
3. Pour into a glass, sprinkle with cinnamon on top and enjoy!

Lassi has a slight but refreshing tartness which cleanses the palate alongside traditionally spicier Asian foods. It also aids digestion and is a healthy addition to any balanced diet.

Some people like to add fruit to their lassi – usually banana or mango, both of which give the drink a nice creamy boost.

Rating: 2 good spanks because I managed to spill the mixture all down my front!

Wonton, Prawn and Vegetable Saffron Rice

This one is a bit of a staple for me, or variations on this theme because great fresh prawns/shrimp are almost always available in Sydney. I like to get mine at the Sydney Fish Markets, when I have the time and can be bothered getting up early enough. They really are a wonderful experience, and much cheaper than my local fish shop.

You’ll need:

Half a cup of basmati/long grain rice (approx., serves 2)

Baby spinach leaves

Green prawn meat (250g)

Homemade Vegetable wontons

(You don’t have to make your own but it’s more fun and they taste superb.)

Saffron (8-10 threads)

Tumeric powder (1 teaspoon)

Paprika (1 teaspoon)

Chilli flakes (to taste)

A pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

Method:

1. Boil the rice. I use a rice cooker because it’s easiest – I can just leave it to cook with all its ingredients and it doesn’t need my watchful eye. Otherwise I burn it or it comes out like jelly.

You want this rice to turn out a bit sticky so add a bit more water than is sufficient to cook it. Basmati or Indian rice goes well with saffron so that’s why I use it though you can use whatever is on hand. If not basmati, I suggest wholegrain instead. Just add the saffron threads straight into the rice cooker/pot and let it cook.

2. Heat a litre of water in a pot and place a collander or steam tray on top. Steam the prawns together with your vegetable wontons (see below) being careful not to overcook either. The prawns turn orange so it’s easy enough to tell when they’re done.

3. Add the baby spinach leaves in at the end so they’re just nicely wilted but still hold most of their shape. This recipe is all about fresh and locking in the flavours.

4. Plate the rice and put the wontons, prawns and spinach on top. Add the tumeric, paprika, chilli flakes, salt and pepper – make sure the prawns and rice get a good lot of the seasoning.

Wontons stuffed with spinach and broccoli.

Ingredients:

- 60 wrappers , wonton
- 5 oz fresh spinach
- 1/2 head fresh broccoli
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1/4 cup, chopped onion, minced
- 10 waterchestnuts, minced
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- Salt, to taste
- 1 dash fresh ground pepper

Directions

1. Wash the spinach and broccoli thoroughly and trim the tough stems right down. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel. Chop the spinach roughly.

2. Place a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the pan/wok is smoking hot, add the sesame oil together with the garlic and onions. Stir fry the onion and garlic for about a minute, then add the spinach, broccoli and water chestnuts. Continue to cook for another 2 minutes, allowing the water from the vegetables to cook off.

3. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes. For those not watching their salt too closely you can add half a teaspoon of soy sauce to bring out the hidden flavours in this dish.

4. Shaping the wontons: Pull a single wonton wrapper from the package and moisten the edges with water. Put a small dollop of the vegetable mixture in the middle of the wonton. Fold the wonton over to form a triangle. Then fold the long edges together and give them a little pinch to hold together. If your wonton isn’t sticking together too well you can try a little oil to hold it in place. Once you’ve practiced pinching them together a few times you should get the hang of it, though. Just take care not to add too much of the vegetable mixture into the wonton because this tends to strain them at the edges and they may burst during cooking.

5. Cover the wontons with plastic wrap to prevent the wrappers from drying out.

6. Steam or deep fry the wontons. I steam mine – approx. 3 minutes to steam. Watch carefully as the wrappers turn gelatinous after a certain point in cooking. If you’re worried about this then deep frying them is easier.

7. You can freeze these wontons for later use. Place them on a baking sheet on your freezer shelf. After they are frozen put them into a resealable bag to have at hand. Defrosting them is very quick.

Rating: 3 spanklets

Food Porn

Grilled white fish with asparagus

This is one of the few dishes I can actually manage to emulate well. It’s one of those KISS dishes. I like swordfish for this but whatever is fresh and fairly meaty will do nicely for this dish.

Grill the fish in a hot pan with a teaspoon of butter and a dash of sesame oil. When the fish is almost cooked through add the asparagus. Obviously, wash and chop said vegetation before this and cook until it’s still just al dente. It’s the not overcooking it part that’s tricky because the fish keeps cooking even after it’s removed from the heat. After it’s plated drizzle a bit of the sesame oil with balsamic vinegar over it. Et voila!

I saw this dish done spectacularly at a Japanese restaurant, and went home and fiddled and tinkered until I got it as close to the real deal as I’m ever likely to get. I ain’t no sous chef, that’s for sure but this one is, at least, edible.

Thank $Deity it even looks pretty in the picture, yes? Hurray for food porn!

Al dente is one of those concepts that tends to be rather elusive. It’s the cook’s equivalent of Elysium – largely kept alive in the heart and truly known only by the imagination. But I think I’m getting there with this one.

Rating: One solid spank and a slap on the wrist.

I was at a cocktail party recently listening to a baker friend of mine tell me about teaching her son how to make dinner for himself one evening. It was simple enough, or so she thought.

One of those packet mix sauce things. She was on the phone to her son and said:

“All you have to do is turn the heat up, pour in the water and throw the packet in.”

The son took his Mother’s advice to heart. Several minutes later his Mother called back and told him to open the packet.

I laughed so hard at this that I snorted champagne. (Now there’s an interesting experience.) But this is so something I would do. I tend to take recipe instructions literally so all I’m saying is pay attention to detail when you write up your recipes, folks. Because there are people out there who don’t know to open the packet.

I love Indian desserts. One particular favourite of mine is a milk based treat known as Burfi. It’s also spelled Barfi, which turns out is particularly appropriate in my hands. I tried to make it today. Well, you’ll see…

Recipe:

KAJU BURFI (Cashew Burfi)

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews
1 cup milk
¾ cup sugar, to taste
¼ cup ghee (or unsalted butter), melted
pinch of cardamom powder
2-3 drops rose water (optional)

METHOD:

Soak the cashews in the milk for a few hours (2-3 hours or more). Using a blender or food processor, blend the cashews, sugar and milk together into a fine thick paste adding more milk if needed.

In a deep skillet on medium low heat, add the cashew paste and keep stirring continuously. After 3-4 minutes, add the melted ghee slowly into the pan (in small increments) while stirring. At this point, add the cardamom powder and rose water. Keep stirring until the mixture comes together forming a ball. Remove from the heat and allow to cool just slightly.

Spread evenly on a lightly greased (butter or cooking spray) baking sheet or tray. The thickness should be at least ¼ inch but no more than ½ inch thick. This is easy to do while the mixture is still warm. Cut into diamond shape pieces and refrigerate in an airtight container.

In theory Cashew Burfi should look something like this:

In practice:

As you can see it turned out not so much as barfi but miscellaneous gelatinous goo. It’s something like cookie dough. Well, it tastes about the same, only with chunks of a toffee like substance throughout. That could be the cashews which may not have entirely blended smooth or it could be the sugar hardened on me at some point.

I could probably get away with adding some baking soda to it and trying it out in the oven because for sure nobody around here is going to be conned into actually eating it.

This is what I did to the pan in the process -

I’m really not entirely sure what I did wrong here. Theoretically this was an easy recipe. I followed the recipe carefully but this wasn’t even close to edible, let alone close to what it’s meant to be. Well, OK it’s technically edible but I’d make myself very, very ill. It turned out much sweeter than I imagined and I have a very sweet tooth so… Oops. Yes, one of those very quiet ‘oops’ that you know actually spells total disaster.

Rating: 4 solid spanks.