Folks, I need advice! My mother’s old garlic press (read - older than me) had gotten awfully rusty and icky so I tossed the bastard and bought a replacement…but it snapped in half the first time I used it. I just bought another and I cannot, for the love of me, get the garlic to go through at all! Its ridiculous!
This means I need to buy a THIRD garlic press, but I need advice since I no longer trust the folks at the local kitchen utensil stores (all three of ‘em) - what brand garlic press do you use and trust? My mother has weak wrists so it’ll have to be one that does the job without using superhuman effort.
PLEASE, I am desperate - a Korean household uses a LOT of garlic, especially since we’re due to make another 30kg batch of kimchi this week so I need to replace it ASAP!
EDIT - Thanks for the feedback, folks! I’ve decided to try the Zyliss Susi (so long as I can go to the store tomorrow and find it) as it sounds the best in terms of price and quality! Will let you know how I go!
While the majority of you, my readers, are based in the northern hemisphere and have been enjoying your turkeys and goose and things like being snowed in and spending nights in front of crackling fireplaces, we in the southern hemisphere have, for most of the past week, had to endure torrential rain that has led to scenes like garbage bins floating down the middle of roads as impromptu driving hazards.
Not that the rain isn’t needed, mind you. Particularly in my home state, the drought situation has been getting so bad that the price of EVERYTHING has continuously increased this year, and even the half week of torrential rain has put a sniff of a dent in the dropping dams. However, despite our need of rain, people all over the state were holding their breaths and waiting to see whether the weather forecasters had got it right, and whether Christmas Day would indeed be bright and sunny.
Well, warm it was not, but it was definitely sunny and clear, and meant that we could proceed with our traditional bbq Christmas meal. You see, by this time of year, its usually so stinking hot that nobody in their right mind is particularly enthused about having the oven on for hours at a time, so while roasts are still popular, they are usually a part of a bigger barbeque feast, which is the way that we usually spend the day.
Whilst my culinarily-incompetent father usually has trouble making anything more complicated than a pot of instant noodles, on barbeque days he proudly wields his giant tongs and lords over his dominion, either barefoot or with slipper-shod feet and either a stubby (beer can) or a cigarette in hand. Unfortunately, as he *is* somewhat mystified by the art of cooking, this usually means that my brother (being slightly more competent due to being fairly well trained by my mother and I) is usually firmly by his side, ‘helping’ him to not burn the various meats to completely charred crisps.
Alas, my brother could not save the kilo of chicken wings which left the kitchen first, of which only half could be salvaged as the other half were burnt beyond recognition. Seeing how those turned out, I sternly took the tray of prawns that I had laboured over the night before and told the lads that I’d be doing these myself.
DID YOU KNOW:
Did you know that while the words ’shrimp’ and ‘prawn’ are used interchangeably, they are actually different creatures?
Physically they look very similar but there is one sure way to tell them apart. In shrimps or carideans the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in front and behind. Prawns, most of which belong to the family Penaeidae of the group Dendrobranchiata, have all the abdominal side plates overlapping tile-like from the front. A more fundamental difference but one impossible to appreciate in a single specimen is that female prawns do not brood eggs but shed them into the currents where they develop independently.
It would therefore make sense to call all member s of the Penaeidae “prawns” and members of the Caridean “shrimps” and this is what most Australians do. King prawns and banana prawns are names understood in this continent for penaeids sold frozen at the markets. The tiny shrimps bought in cans or froz en are imported carideans. Confusion arises when we hear Americans refer to prawns as “shrimp”.
As part of the Christmas meal, there’s always some prawns but unfortunately, my parents usually massacre them by overboiling them and serving them with a ketchup/mayo mix in some bastardized prawn cocktail. Seeing the gorgeous specimens they’d picked up at the markets for this year’s feast, I told my mother that this year we’d be trying something different, and that their prawn cocktail would not be featured at this year’s feast.
My mother baulked at the idea of doing without this constant, and in turn asked me what I had planned. To be honest, I hadn’t a clue, but I knew it had to be simple and work with Asian flavours otherwise my family may refuse to eat them, which would be a disaster (2kg of prawns is a LOT not to be eaten!). I decided to think about it as I sat in front of the telly, removing the shells and veins by myself, but by the end of the undertaking I still had not a clue. In the hopes that one of my fellow food bloggers might be on MSN and be able to offer some ideas, I hopped online (after washing my prawny fingers, of course!). Thankfully, I found Linda, a fellow Asian Melbourne-based food blogger (Butter Sugar Flour - I suggest you check it out) floating about and discussed my dilemma with her:
Linda - if your hands smell like prawns, aren’t you stinking up your keyboard too? (lol, just joking)
Ellie - LOL! Probably, but I can’t notice anything beyond my fingers at this point so I’ll worry about it later
I’ve peeled them so I can marinate them, but I’m at a loss for what the marinade should be…garlic, chilli, that’s as far as I’ve gotten
Linda - garlic chilli lemon juice is always a winner, but you got no citrus girl!
Ellie - I got limes, but if its a citrus marinade then I’d have to do it tomorrow else it’d start cooking the prawns
Linda - got any parsely around? Throw that in
Ellie - nah, no parsley, might just go ginger and sugar and call it a day! Alright, I’m off to have a smoke and tackle the freakin prawns~
I took off outside and pondered my dilemma some more as I enjoyed my one and only cancer stick of the day. Ginger and sugar was indeed a good combo, but I didn’t think it would do a good job marinating without some liquid to carry the flavours. Fish sauce? Nah, I’m working with prawns, and the overwhelming flavour would probably mess with the flavour of the prawns. I knew I had a few limes bouncing around the chiller box in the fridge, and used those as a basis for my experiment, tasting the final product with some nervousness before pouring the lot over the prawns and bidding them goodnight in my fridge.
The next day, I worridly waited till the moment that I could finally cook the little beasties, and as soon as the first was done, I plucked off the head and took a bite. And smiled. And offered it to my mother.
Will these ever replace my parents fondness for prawn cocktails? I doubt it, but my family agrees that these prawns have earned their place at the feast for next year’s Christmas, so I guess that’s a success!
Sweet Chilli Lime Prawns
Ingredients
1kg large prawns (we had tiger prawns)
Juice and zest of 2 limes
1 - 1.5 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, finely diced
1-2 tbsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried coriander powder
1. Soak some bamboo skewers overnight, making sure you have one for each prawn.
2. Remove the shells from the prawns, leaving the heads and tails intact. Remove the tract from the back by cutting a small slit with a knife and fishing it out with a toothpick and then give the prawns a quick rinse and shake dry.
3. Mix together all the other ingredients in a bowl and alter to taste. Pack the prawns into a large casserole dish and carefully pour the marinade over the top. Leave for about 2-3 hours, giving the prawns a toss every hour to make sure they’re all getting the chance to be marinated.
4. Just before cooking, thread each prawn onto a skewer by holding it firmly in hand, inserting the skewer from between the tail fins and up the body up into the head.
5. Fire up the barbeque (or grill) and just before cooking, give them a light brush with some melted butter to stop them sticking. Grill them for no more than 2-3 minutes each side, removing them to a plate once they lose their opaque colour and are nice and fragrant.
6. Serve with some steamed rice and a simple citrussy salad and enjoy!
To all of my readers, Mr Woofy and I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. And remember, as Mr Woofy would like to warn - don’t party too hard, cuz it makes your halos go all crooked-like. 
I really did mean to write up a new post today, but unfortunately I just don’t have the energy. I have, over the past three days, baked/iced/giftwrapped over 350 cookies of an assorted variety for our Christmas goodie hampers. The list of goodies include:
- Jam thumbprint cookies with homemade nectarine butter
- ANZAC cookies
- White chocolate and cranberry cookies
- Gingerbread cookies w/ royal icing
- Green tea macarons with sweetened adzuki buttercream
- Yoyos with orange buttercream
- Chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons
- Tim tam truffles coated with:
- white chocolate and rolled in crushed walnuts
- milk chocolate and rolled in dessicated coconuts
- dark chocolate and dusted in cocoa powder
- Peanut butter & choc chip cookies
- Strawberry rice cakes (ichigo daifuku - not technically a cookie, but still a part of the gift baskets)
Unfortunately, the end result is that my back feels like it has been snapped in half and I am sore all over. Be back soon…well, as soon as I recover, anyway! 
Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you for reading this blog and especially for all your lovely comments and emails - it takes a lot of effort to keep motivated and keep this blog running, but your lovely words make it all worthwhile, so I just want to say thanks
xox,
Ellie
Well, not in the traditional sense anyway, no creamy churned cow-juice here folks - today’s entry is dairy free! The type of butter I am in fact referring to is peach butter, a jam-like preserve made from peaches is deliciously viscous, sweet and can be enjoyed in any number of ways!
I’m not exactly an old hand when it comes to preserves, and there’s a good reason for it - unfortunately, its just not enjoyed much in our household, I’m pretty much the only person who eats jams, though my father is quite partial to the odd marmalade. My very first foray into the world of jamming was in fact only a few months ago when I made my first strawberry jam.
Well, that one batch of strawberry jam lasted me a few months, and I’ve made it twice again since then, but frankly, I was getting a bit sick of it and feeling rather desperate to try and expand my preserving repertoire. We are, after all, dead in the middle of summer now - the season of bountiful stone fruits and richly-coloured berries, all I needed was the chance to buy a kilo or two of anything to get me going. You could see how then coming across the $2.00 box of nectarines (2kg worth!) was pure fate, to me anyway. My mother raised an eyebrow as I hefted the box into our cart, but when she saw the cheek-splitting grin on my face thought better of saying anything and left me to my fruit.
Once I got my bounty home, it was straight to the internet where I found a recipe for peach butter that I thought sounded promising, so I decided to print it off and give it a try.
DID YOU KNOW:
Did you know that the nectarine is actually a variety of the peach? The fruit differs from the peach in skin texture, aroma, and flavor but closely resembles it in color and in size and shape of seed. Peach seeds occasionally give rise to trees that bear nectarines, and nectarine seeds may give rise to trees bearing either peaches or nectarines. Because it is impossible to know which type of tree will result from the planting of a nectarine seed, buds from branches on which nectarines have grown are grafted to peach trees.
There was, however, one problem - sugar. You see, once I read through the instructions and saw that my total liquid would have reduced to half by the time I was done, 4 cups of sugar seemed like far, far too much. Its actually a bit of a problem that I have with commercial jams, the sheer sweetness often puts me right off enjoying the fruit, which is the whole reason I’m eating it in the first place!
I think this is one of the best things about home-made preserves - not only can you control the sugar content, but you’re also 100% guaranteed to be getting a jam without any sort of colourings or preservatives (though there are many that tote that they have NATURAL additives, I dare you to read Eric Schlosser ‘Fast Food Nation‘ and look the same way at your pantry again), with nothing on the label that you can’t pronounce or understand.
As for the results, I have to admit that I am absolutely smitten. In fact, I was so smitten with the results of my first batch, that the next morning I went straight back to the greengrocer to grab another box of nectarines to make more of this preserve, to be stored in little bottles to be added to our Xmas gift baskets!
I don’t know if this is a selling point for you - but the fact that my non-jam-lovin’ mother has been attacking the currently open jar and eating it by the spoonful is, I think, a fairly decent indication that this marvellous stuff is hard to resist!
Spiced Nectarine butter
(based on this recipe)
Ingredients
2kg ripe nectarines
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 stick cinnamon
2-3 cloves
1. Wash your nectarines, then halve them and remove the seeds and any dodgy bits - do NOT peel them or throw away any peel.
2. Put the peaches into a large pot with the 1/2 cup of water, cinnamon and cloves and cook over medium heat, simmering the mixture till the nectarines have almost liquefied (you should be able to pulverize them with a bit of pressure from a spoon), this will take about 15-20 minutes, depending on how ripe your fruit is.
3. Run the cooked fruit through a food mill (or a fine mesh strainer) till all you have left are the skins, which can now be discarded.
4. Return the nectarine pulp to a large pot, stir in the sugar and cook over low-medium heat till the colour has deepened, the texture has become quite thick and the amount of liquid roughly halved. This should take anywhere between 45-60 minutes, and you will need to stir it every 5-10 minutes to stop the mixture sticking to the bottom.
WARNING: As this mixture cooks down and water evaporates, it will begin to splatter quite violently. The best way to cook this is to use a wooden spoon to prop up the lid of the pot as it cooks - this way, you’re allowing steam to escape, but retaining enough heat to cook the jam down to the required consistency.
5. CAREFULLY pour into hot sterilized jars till it is filled about 1cm from the top. Place the lid on the jar, then place in simmering water for 10 minutes. Carefully remove from the water and place on a dishcloth on your counter top to cool completely.
This rich, gooey nectarine butter can be enjoyed in a variety of ways:
- Spread into little tartlette cases as jam tarts
- Swirled through a cake or muffin mix to achieve a marbled effect
- In thumbprint jam cookies
- To fill a cake…
- Whatever your imagination can come up with…!
Technorati Tags: preserves, jams, fruit, recipes, peaches, nectarines
Others who have tried this recipe:
- Anna from Sharing My Interests
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There is a reason that you don’t see many salads on this blog. To be honest, my creativity with salads is limited, to say the least. My vegetable intake is usually raw as part of a dish (cucumber & carrot sticks, rice paper rolls, lettuce leaf wraps) or just a bunch of vegetables from the crisper of the fridge tossed together with a little home-made dressing tossed over the top.
It is for reasons like these that, whilst people are eager to have me be responsible for the entree, mains or dessert, I am never ever put on salad duty. Its not to say that I don’t eat salads - I love ‘em (mostly when prepared by others), its just that when *I* make them, they very obviously say “here’s the veggies I found in my fridge - enjoy!”
This even extends to the humble potato salad. Though you may think this is simple, I unfortunately grew up with my mother’s bastardized version made for Asian tastebuds (I’m sorry, but I cannot stomach Korean/Japanese mayo or ketchup. Absolutely wretched - blegh!) which had me forever thinking that potato salad was just a dish that I hated. This was until a few years ago, when I had the fortune to try a fantastic potato salad at a barbeque - when I tasted it, my eyes literally rolled back so much that my then boyfriend asked me if I was alright. All I could do was grab his arm and tell him that I needed to find the person who made this so I could get the recipe from them.
Unfortunately, I proceeded to get completely toasted that night, and barely managed to sit up straight, nevermind talk coherently about potato salad (though I think I did try), and never did find the recipe for this particular dish.
Anyway, it made me realize that a potato salad could be a damn fine thing if you just treated it with a bit of respect, and that was exactly the thought I had when I was browsing the aisles of my local supermarket to stumble across some adorable little kipfler potatoes.
Having a bit of a thing for all things cute (beware if you walk your dog anywhere near me, I will happily bound across the road and get on my knees to say hello to strange dogs, much to the bemusement of their owners), I immediately piled about half a kilo into a bag and tossed them into my trolley. Though I’d never cooked with them before, I’d enjoyed them many times while eating out, and I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to try to make a potato salad!
After my shopping was done, I made it home and started to put away the groceries when my mother emerged from her room to help. She picked up the bag of potatoes and poked them quizzically, before turning to me and asking me what they were.
“Mother…they’re potatoes. Can’t you tell?”
“Well they don’t look like any potatoes I’ve ever seen!”
“What do you mean? They’re small, firm, tubers, with eyes and roots like potatoes have…”
“Yes, but what kind of potato is all small and weird-shaped like this??”
I took the potatoes off her and quickly shooed her out of the kitchen. Unfortunately, with the way my mother asks questions, if I didn’t get her out now then I’d be stuck for another half hour answering all manner of questions on their history (I don’t know), what country they’re from (I don’t know) and what cuisine used them the most (I DON’T FREAKING KNOW!).
Ahem.
With ingredients that are foreign to her, the best approach is to just present them to her in a dish that she can eat, which will just result in a yay or nay verdict.
Anyway, once I’d put away the rest of the groceries and was ready to start my potato salad journey, I hopped onto the ‘net to try and find a recipe for a potato salad that featured kipflers. After some searching I found one at Haalo’s site which sounded quite good, so I decided to give it a whirl (with a few additions that mostly had to do with what I had in the kitchen - I’d just gotten back from grocery shopping, I wasn’t too keen on going back out for one or two things!)
The end verdict? Quite delicious! I still find potato salad quite stodgy and am unable to have more than a few bites, but the lemony dressing here really helps to cut through the richness and yet its flavoursome enough that you don’t feel wanting for anything else.
Most importantly, this salad is so good that I think I just might volunteer myself for salad duty for the next group barbeque
Warm Kipfler Potato Salad w/ Lemon Mustard Dressing
(Adapted from Haalo)
Ingredients
400g Kipfler potatoes
½ lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 spring onions, finely chopped
50ml olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 – 4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1-2 rashers bacon (lean, trimmed of skin and the white fatty bits), finely diced
1. Scrub the potatoes well and give them a good rinse to remove all the dirt. Chop off any particularly manky bits or large eyes, then prick them all over with a fork. Put them into the microwave for about 6-8 minutes, or till almost completely cooked. Cut the potatoes into bit-size pieces and set aside.
2. Heat a frying pan with just a smidge of oil, then toss in the diced bacon with the garlic and fry till the bacon pieces have crisped up. Add the potato, salt and pepper (you really shouldn’t need any salt thanks to the bacon) to taste and fry till the potato has cooked through and picked up a bit of colour, no more than a few minutes. Remove the potato/bacon mixture to a bowl, then toss the spring onion through.
3. In a small bowl, put the lemon juice and mustard, a grinding of pepper and salt. Whisk these together until amalgamated, then begin to slowly trickle in the oil (similar technique to making mayonnaise). You are looking for the dressing to emulsify and thicken.
4. Arrange the salad onto a plate, then carefully and somewhat evenly drizzle the dressing over the top. Serve warm.
Technorati Tags: potato salad, dressing, salads, recipes, kipfler, potatoes
