Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope that you all have a fabulous festive season (regardless of belief or religion)…
I hope your day may be full of joy…
With lots of delicious treats to nom…
Some quality time relaxing with family and loved ones…
And even a little silliness added in to bring you extra cheer!
Mr Woofy and I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and thank you for your comments and support for yet another year 
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So what have this delightful ice cream and this delicious little eclair have in common?
They were both made with a beautiful home-made pistachio paste which tastes so good that it had my toes wriggling with delight!
Pistachios are one of the most delicately-flavoured nuts in existence. The beautiful emerald-green nut is hidden beneath papery rose-kissed covering which is obscenely painful to remove, and the colour will start to change to a rather unattractive brown once the nut is exposed to anything other than a low heat. Not only this, but once roasted, the flavour of the pistachio becomes lost as it transforms in both scent and taste to something kinda-but-not-quite like a toasted almond.
In short, cooking with pistachios can be a downright b*tch.
The question then becomes one of figuring out how to capture the flavour of pistachio and using it in ways that best carry the beauty of the nut straight to the tastebuds.
At my visit to Taste of Melbourne this year, I found myself in exquisite pleasure as I indulged in the beautiful pistachio panna cotta with salted caramel popcorn that could be purchased at the stand for Sarti. After pleading to speak with the man in charge of such delight, I questioned him about how he had flavoured the panna cotta. I’m not sure if my pleading was persuasive or it was the fact that I all but got onto my knees to grovel, but he soon revealed that the secret to the flavour lay in the quality of the French pistachio paste that they used.
Now, Bronte Pistachio Paste is (from what I hear) the best thing to use, but the fact of the matter is that the commercial pastes incorporate dairy or oil in some way, and I wanted a truly versatile paste that I could use for anything from ice cream to cookies, so the liquid content had to be as minimal as possible.
After reading what seemed like a hundred different recipes and methods for making your own pistachio paste, I set myself to task with a kilo of untoasted pistachios, a $40 domestic food processor and an afternoon of experimentation and came up with the following – which I must admit that I’m incredibly pleased with.
This is a very thick paste so regardless of how it’s used, you’ll need to “loosen” it before use by incorporating it into whatever liquid is a part of the recipe that you’re using (if there is no liquid, then you can mix it into softened butter and take it from there). But if you decide to give this a try, then I hope that you’ll enjoy using it as much as I do
Homemade Sweetened Pistachio Paste
Ingredients
500g skinned pistachios **
250g caster sugar
1 tbsp glucose syrup
1/3 cup water
Optional – 1 or 2 drops green food dye
** The best way to skin pistachios is to soak them in boiling water for about 3-4 minutes, after which the skins can be slipped straight off. Once the skins are removed, drain the nuts and spread them in a single layer on a baking tray and “dry” them for about 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 100 degrees Celcius – careful not to toast them as I find this changes the flavour (and colour) to something akin to toasted almonds.
1. Place the skinned pistachios, sugar, glucose syrup and water into a food processor
2. Give the ingredients a quick blitz, after which you’ll see the nuts break down into smaller pieces. Scrape down the sides and continue to process for a few minutes at a time, making sure that you stop intermittently to scrape down the sides to ensure that it’s blending evenly.
3. Once the mixture starts to form a smooth paste, you can add a few drops of green food dye to give the paste a very pretty colour – make sure you don’t add too much as you don’t want the paste to resemble a crayon, but rather to be as close to the natural colour of pistachios as possible.
4. Once the paste is as smooth as possible (home food processors won’t have the power to make a silky smooth paste like the commercial ones that you can find), you can place it in a ziplock bag which can be stored in the fridge for a month (or frozen for longer).
This paste is fabulous because it can be used for any number of applications – you can use it to make ice cream, flour a buttercream, cake batter, pastry cream – whatever you like! Or you can save it for my next two posts – pistachio ice cream and pistachio salambos
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The following is a sponsored post on behalf of HotHouse Media and Taste of Melbourne
This year, I’m pretty sure I set some sort of personal record, but I’m not quite sure what that is.
You see, this year I attend Taste of Melbourne on almost every day that it was running for 2011.
By the end of the week, my feet were in pain (honestly, WHY do I wear heels when I know I’m going to spend the day wandering about?), my wallet was *much* thinner and I’d loaded up on an incredible amount of food, drinks and wines.
Melbourne is, without a doubt, the food capital of Australia. There are more and more events that cater to those of us who are gastronomically-inclined, the three major ones being the Good Food & Wine Show, Taste of Melbourne and the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
While there are quite a few similarities between the Good Food & Wine Show and Taste of Melbourne, in my opinion the latter is the better one to attend.
Why?
Simply put, because Taste of Melbourne really is about taste. Tasting foods from some of the fabulous restaurants in Melbourne in a sort of DIY degustation, tasting various products from many small and independent producers around the state (and some even from around the country) and then finally tasting the sheer exhaustion that can only come after nonstop walking and eating for about 4 hours.
With samples as far as the eye can see, this is a great place to discover a new favourite jam, cheese, smallgoods, or even cider producer – mostly because you get a chance to “try before you buy”. Another great thing is that the stalls are mostly manned by the people who work or own the businesses that produce these goods, so it provides you with an opportunity to talk to them about their methods and products.
As far as the restaurants are concerned, with so many restaurants in town, there are quite a few great names who sign up to take part in the event – taking the opportunity to tantalize a few tastebuds in the hopes that ToM attendees will like what they experience so much that they make the trek out to the restaurant itself to see what they can do.
Though – I must share a word of warning here. Sitting space is a very limited commodity, so one skill that I recommend that you perfect before attending is the art of eating while standing / walking / huddling in a corner and salivating.
Another thing to note is that your “meal” here will possibly be the most haphazard dining experience of the year. You could very well start off with a little bite of chocolate, then work yourself through to an amazing cassoulet (like the one featured from Libertine in North Melbourne, a festival attendee this year), take a break for some ice cream before trying two or three different ciders and going back for yet more chocolate.
Or ice cream.
Depending on where on earth you happen to be standing next.
For those of you who haven’t attended this event before, the currency of Taste of Melbourne is “crowns”. 1 dollar = 1 crown, and these can be exchanged for pretty much any product at the event. Prices will vary on the various vendors in terms of produce, but the mini-meals from the restaurants tend to vary between $8-$12 so it makes for a pretty decently priced meal.
Though, considering the fact that there are about 15 restaurants who attend the event and each features three different dishes…you may want to go along with a few friends if you’re intent on trying a good selection of plates otherwise you may find yourself struggling for stomach space by the time you’re halfway through.
Another thing that I recommend for event attendees is to make sure you bring a bottle of water. I found it hilarious that you can find at least 20 different flavours of macarons and god knows how many different alcohols here, but finding a bottle of good ol’ H20 was like hunting for a magical lamp – to the point where my friend and I were panting like dogs by the time that we located a water fountain outside the building where we could (finally) quench our thirst!
Speaking of drinking, like I mentioned before, booze is aplenty here. You have wine, beer, cider, tequila, gin, and various cocktails – and these are just the ones that I noticed! Considering the prices, I’d say that it’s a shame to attend without having a drink or two, so make sure that you take public transport or talk some poor sucker (such as myself) into being the designated driver so you can get your drink on.
Responsibly, of course…
Which brings me to my Taste of Melbourne Survival Guide:
So I survived Taste of Melbourne for another year, and the way I figure, I’ve got another 11 months to recover before I get ready to do it all over again next year! You can see more of my photos from this year’s Taste of Melbourne at my Flickr gallery here.
My thanks goes to the following producers from whom I exchanged monies for bites of sheer deliciousness!
Jindi Cheese – their Old Telegraph Road triple cream brie is stupidly rich and sends your heart (and cholesterol levels) soaring with each bite. The camembert that I scored is currently sitting in the fridge to ripen for a few weeks before I dive into it face-first! Their cheeses are still made 100% by hand and the quality definitely shows.
Ashbolt Elderflower – a family affair from Tasmania, run by a husband and wife team as well as their two children. Organically farmed, this elderflower concentrate is stunning and perfect for mixing with gin for a light, summery cocktail. Apparently you can cook with it as well, but my bottle has been set aside for summer drinkies
Ganache Chocolates – this chocolatier is located in South Yarra and is one of my favourite chocolate stores in Melbourne. Arno Backes makes deliciously smooth chocolates, and his claim to fame is having made little bites of heaven for the Queen of England!
Gundowring Ice Cream – Three words – golden syrup icecream. OMNOMNOMNOM!
Rebello Wines – You can keep your Bulmers and Rekorderlig. Their Cheeky Rascal range of ciders are delightful without the cloying syrupy sweetness that some ciders can have – of note is my favourite flavour, the pear and strawberry cider. The Strawbellini wine is also a fun, easy drinking sparkling wine perfect for warm weather bbqs.
Pukara Estate Oils & Vinegars – These guys make my favourite caramelized balsamic vinegar in the country (so much so that I’ve converted quite a number of people onto it) and now make a brilliant garlic mayonnaise with incredible punch and bite that it’s a must for any serious garlic-lover.
Sugardaddy’s Confectionary – Their dark caramel spread (a mix of Dulche De Leche and French salted caramel) is divine, rich, not too sweet, incredibly moreish and very very dangerous. Their earl grey jelly is also made with real earl grey tea not bergamot extract, and the flavour really comes through here.
Trumer Pils – I’m not a beer drinker but my brother quite enjoys a yeasty fermentation and said that this is by far one of the best beers that he has ever tasted. Considering the fact that he works in a bottle shop and tries quite a variety of beer, this is quite a statement!
Yarra Valley Dairy – Hands down my favourite dairy in Victoria for goats cheese. Their “Cardi” marinated goats cheese is my absolute favourite on the market. I should also apologize to the poor girl that I frightened when I ran up to their stall, shoved my grabby hands in her face and loudly declared “Cardi! Mine!”
Fudge By Rich – I usually hate fudge. That cloying, tooth-aching sweetness turns me right off and makes me feel incredibly ill, yet the fudge made here is rich without the overwhelming sweetness. In fact, it was so good that I bought three blocks of the stuff – milk chocolate & walnut, caramel and dark chocolate.
Giverny Estate – Makers of kiwi wines (which I did not try), I was utterly smitten with their kiwi cider with it’s balance of sharpness and sweetness. It is incredibly refreshing and an absolutely wonderful cider to have on a warm day.
Enni Cafe – Located in Thornbury, they have a particularly talented pastry chef who makes the best flourless orange & poppyseed cake that I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. Most flourless orange cakes that I’ve eaten are quite dense, yet the ones here are incredibly light and fluffy and just can’t be faulted! I’d avoid the macarons though – the macarons themselves are fine but the fillings were a bit of a letdown.
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Before we get into today’s post, my recipe for chicken, tofu & mushroom dumplings is up in an international recipe battle for Mushroom Masters on the Tastespotting blog! Please take the time to click this link and vote for me!
Please?
Pretty please?
With a cherry on top?
WARNING:
The letter directly underneath this image contains some ranting and frothing at the mouth. If you are of a delicate nature and can’t stand this sort of unladylike behavior then I urge you to skip it entirely and go straight to the recipe.
For those of you of a tougher constitution, please read on…
Dear Jill Dupleix,
I’ve always thought that you weren’t too bad of a recipe creator. I have just one of your books, but the handful of recipes that I’ve tried from it have turned out pretty alright. Simple, easy, nothing that flash, but pretty alright. So as far as cookbook authors go, I’ve always considered you to be somewhat trustworthy (more so than, for example, Donna Hay).
However, it was brought to my attention that you decided to publish a recipe for bibimbap, a classic Korean dish and one that we, as a nation, adore.
And then I actually saw a copy of the recipe from your book, and laughed hysterically. And then I was pissed off. And then I laughed hysterically again.
Despite what you may think, I’m not a maniac – that’s just how absolutely LAUGHABLE your recipe was.
I have just one thing to say to you – THAT IS NOT BIBIMBAP! DO NOT MESS WITH MY CULTURE!
Look, by all means, say that your recipe is inspired by the Korean dish, but do not proclaim that it is actually the real thing as that will just give people the wrong impression of what the dish entails, and god forbid they actually walk into a Korean restaurant and tell the chef “that’s not how Jill Dupleix does it”.
Because you know that there will be at least ONE person in this world who does.
I hope you’ll take this into consideration the next time you’re thinking about bastardizing another culture’s cuisine.
Regards,
Ellie, the Kitchen Wench
P.S. My mother, who I also shared your recipe with, would like me to pass on a message. That message is “*(^)(%^$&@@^T(^@@^)&!!!!!”
Now I’ve posted about bibimbap before (back in 2007), back before David Chang and Roy Choi brought Korean cuisine to the attention of the international stage, but after seeing bastardization after bastardization of this beloved dish of mine, I felt like it was time to revisit it as the understanding of what this dish entails seems to be diluted and/or lost.
So, let’s go to what this dish means to those of us who are of Korean heritage.
I doubt that there is a single Korean family anywhere in the world who hasn’t had this dish at least once, regardless of what country they were brought up in. The reason for this is that culturally, bibimbap is how we use up leftovers.
That’s right.
To be more specific, it’s typically how we use up day-old rice and the last little bits of banchan (side dishes) rolling around in the fridge.
For those of you who are somewhat unfamiliar with Korean cuisine, every meal is always served with an array of side dishes. While kimchi is quite standard (in fact, I’m bemused when it’s not on the table. Even if dinner happens to be pizza), the rest will vary according to what is in season and what the mother feels like making. There’s no hard and fast rule for this, but as a cuisine with very little “fresh” vegetables in it’s repertoire, it’s the way that most of us get our vegetable intake. Blanched spinach tossed with toasted sesame oil and freshly crushed garlic, sauteed zucchini, wilted bean shoots, dried (and rehydrated) marinated fern bracken – there is an infinite number of side dishes which can be made and stored in the fridge at any one time.
However, after eating the same side dishes for a number of days, any family’s interest usually wanes and there may be just a few spoonfuls of each dish left sadly in each plastic container.
It is at this stage that the rice leftover from last night’s meal is trotted out, and all the banchan tossed in rather unceremoniously with a heap of gochujang (Korean chilli paste), toasted sesame oil and (usually) a fried egg.
It’s the turn-to meal when we’re tired or simply can’t be bothered cooking, or just need to get rid of whatever banchan is nearing the end of it’s life before fresh dishes are made up.
Of course, this isn’t how it’s done in any Korean restaurant you may go to, but as far as I’m concerned, bibimbap will forever be a glorious, haphazard mix of flavour and texture that I turn to whenever I like!
Bibimbap
(serves 4-5 people)
Ingredients
2x medium zucchini
2x medium onions
2x small-medium carrots
300g minced beef
500g fresh mung bean sprouts
3-4 spring onions
9-10 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 bunch spinach
2x cloves garlic
Sesame seed oil
Olive oil
Salt
Sugar
Toasted sesame seeds
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Gochujjang (Korean chilli paste)
4x eggs, fried
2-3 cups cooked white medium-grain rice
Preparation of some example banchan ingredients
| Ho-bak Bokkeum (Sauteed Zucchini) |
Sukju Namul Muchim (Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts) |
Shigemchi Muchim (Sauteed Spinach) |
Pyogo Bohsot (Shiitake Mushrooms) |
| 2x medium zucchini 2 tbsp fish sauce 1 garlic clove, minced Salt Olive oil1. Wash the zucchini, then top and tail them and cut them into pieces about 5-6cm long.2. Take one piece (it should be a short cylinder), and place one of the cut round ends face-down on the chopping board. Proceed to slice into ‘sheets’ about 5mm thick.3.Cut out any seeds, then julienne the zucchini ‘sheets’ into short strips about 5-6cm long and 3-4mm thick.4.Put the zucchini strips into a non-reactive bowl, pour over the fish sauce and lightly toss through with your fingers till they are evenly coated. Set them aside till they have wilted – about 10-20 minutes.5.Strain the zucchini, then squeeze out all excess moisture and set aside.6.Preheat a frying pan or wok with a little olive oil till hot, then add the zucchini, garlic and salt and sautée till they’ve softened a bit more and absorbed the flavour of the salt and garlic.7. Remove from heat, and once cooled, store in an airtight container. |
500g fresh mung bean sprouts 2x cloves garlic, minced Salt 3-4 spring onions Sesame seed oil Toasted sesame seeds1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then blanch the mung bean sprouts by adding them to the water and leaving them for a minute or two, till they begin to soften. Immediately drain them but DO NOT RINSE1! Instead, leave them to cool in the colander, occasionally giving them a toss.2.While they’re cooling, rinse the spring onion and slice them on the bias into pieces about 2-3mm thick. Add these to the blanched bean shoots, along with the garlic, salt, sesame seeds and sesame oil, then lightly toss through with your hand till they are evenly coated.3.Once completely cooled, store in an airtight container.1 – The reason that you do not refresh the bean shoots in cold water after blanching is that this causes them to retain more moisture, weighing down the shoots and making them soggy. |
1x bunch spinach Salt Sesame seed oil Toasted sesame seeds1. Remove the roots from the spinach, then give them a thorough rinse to get rid of as much dirt as possible.2.Bring a large pot of water to the boil, then add the spinach and make sure it is submerged for a few minutes (or till wilted but not completely cooked).3.Drain spinach and rinse thoroughly in a few changes of cold water, till the colour is a vibrant green and there is no more green in the rinsing water.4.Drain well, then take small handfuls and squeeze out as much water as you can, whilst being careful not to mush the spinach entirely.5.Roughly chop into easy-to-eat lengths, then put into a bowl, along with enough salt to season and the sesame seeds and sesame oil.6. Toss through evenly, then store in an airtight container once cooled. |
9-10 dried shiitake mushrooms 2 tbsp soy sauce 1-2 tsp sesame seed oil1. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add the dried shiitake mushrooms and boil till well softened.2.Rinse in cold water then drain well, squeezing out any excess liquid, and remove the fibrous stems and cut into strips about 3-4mm thick.3.Preheat a frying pan, then add the mushrooms, soy sauce and sesame oil and stir fry over high heat till the mushrooms have heated through and absorbed all the soy sauce and oil.4. Set aside till needed. |
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This is a sponsored post on behalf of the Australian Mushroom Growers Association! Please vote for my dumplings at the official Tastespotting competition page here!
Dear sweet and loyal readers.
It’s that time of year again.
Last year, you helped me win an absolute landslide victory in the Mushroom Masters – a competition run by the mushroom industry in Australia, Canada and the US. Pitching bloggers from each country against each other in four rounds of recipe competitions, it was the ultimate test of talent, loyalty and love.
Which blogger would be able to create the recipe which tantalized the most tastebuds?
Which readers would vote for or against their own nation to support their favourite blogger?
And who would reign supreme overall?
Last year, I won in an absolute landslide with 53% of the total votes for my humble roasted mushroom and goat’s cheese lasagne.
Not having ever won anything before in my life at that stage (I don’t count the runner’s up trophies that my netball team won in primary school) this was absolutely incredible to me and I was both ecstatic and humbled that readers from all over the globe had voted for my little recipe as the winner in that round of the competition!
For the 2011 Mushroom Masters competition, my challenge was to create a recipe for the appetizer category and so I’ve created these stunning Chicken, Shiitake and Portabello Mushroom dumplings. Incredibly simple to make, dumplings are one of the most versatile foods – you can serve them individually as an amuse-bouche, or heaped on a plate for everyone to share!
With this being the final stage of the competition, the stakes are high and the pressure is on! I’m definitely not used to winning things so the question is whether I’ll be able to pull off another fantastic victory this year!
Or rather, whether you still love me enough to help me win, by voting on the official Tastespotting competition page
To find the recipe, you’ll have to go to the Australian Mushroom Growers Association website, but before you depart for their site, I beg beg beg of you to please vote for your one, your only, your Kitchen Wench in this recipe competition!
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