Lamb Bolognese with Zucchini Noodles

Another week-night family meal, I picked up some lamb from our local butcher with the intention of making some lamb burgers, but changed my mind after stopping by the farmers market to find some lovely, fresh and local zucchini.

I decided to use a Benriner we have at the restaurant to make a bed of zucchini "Noodles" for a healthier and fresh alternative for this pasta dish.

Ingredients:

1/2 Lb Ground lamb
1 Carrot
1 Medium size onion
3 Stalks of celery
1 Tsp Rosemary or Oregano
1 Clove of garlic
2 Med-large zucchini
Tomato paste
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A bottle of red wine
Salt
Pepper
Parmesan

Preparation:

Making the bolognese is fairly simple and the same procedure can be used for beef and pork as well. Start by heating a large saucepan on medium heat and add your lamb and some olive oil, once the meat has started to colour add your soffritto (this is the mix of finely chopped onions, celery and carrots.  Also known as mirepoix or battuto). Season with salt and pepper.

Once the vegetables have begun to soften and the meat is cooking nicely. Add in half of a small tin of tomato paste, two or three glasses of red wine and your clove of garlic finely chopped.

Bring this all to a simmer on medium-low heat add a few dashes of the balsamic vinegar and your herbs.

Cover and let all of the flavour condense and cook down. If the sauce is looking a bit to thick and the meat hasn't become tender yet add a half cup of water to thin out the sauce and let it keep simmering.

I used my Benriner slicer to create the zuccini ribbons. Alternatively you can use a vegetable peeler to make the ribbons or there are many julienne peelers available for around $10.

once everything has become a lovely rich-thick sauce. add a handful of the zucchini to your plate and top with the bolognese.

Top with some freshly grated parmesan (and also enjoy the rest of that bottle of wine!)

Onigiri

Simple addition to work lunch and an easy grab n' go snack. There are limitless options as far as fillings go. A personal favourite is smoked/salt cured salmon with wasabi mayo, though the version I made is with Japanese style omelettes rolled and sliced then stuffed inside the rice ball.

Having a wet cloth or bowl of water helps for the balls. the rice is much less likely to stick to your fingers if they are wet.  Grab a large spoonful of the still warm rice and form a patty in your palm, place your filling in the centre and the wrap the rice around to form a ball.  Simple.

Ingredients:

• Rice
• Water
• Salt
• A few sheets of nori (seaweed)

Fillings (Anything you'd like to put inside):

• Eggs
• Umeboshi (Japanese salty pickled plum)
• Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
• Sesame seeds
• Soy sauce

Things you need:

• Wet towel to wipe your hands
• An airtight container to store them in

Creamy Pasta with Grapes, Kale, Bacon & Andouille Sausage

Adding to the list of week-night meals again with a pasta dish I made a couple weeks ago but have yet to get my post done.

A simple cream sauce with some sautéed bacon, adouille, kale & red grapes.  I did make the pasta myself, but it was just some leftover tagliatelle from the weekend.  Feel free to substitute any other pasta such as fettuccine or even Fusilli.  This dish is also nice if you substitute the grapes for cherry tomatoes.

I'm not going to do a full recipe for this one, but its fairly simple:

Start by setting your pasta water to boil and getting your pasta going, fresh pasta only takes 2 or so minutes to cook, but your dried pasta can take anywhere from 8-10 minutes.

Fry your bacon on medium-high and once it begins to render its fat add the sausage and grapes.

As everything begins to get a bit of colour add the kale and stir until it begins to soften. Reduce the heat to medium - low.

Add about a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of cream and let it begin to thicken with the residual heat and keep stirring.

I added about a 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan, but I've used this recipe with goats cheese or even an aged cheddar in a pinch.

Once the sauce has thickened and the pasta is al dente add your pasta to the pan and if you need some additional liquid for the sauce add a few Tbs of the pasta water.

Toss the pasta in the sauce and serve immediately.   Buon Appetito!

Jamie Oliver Challenge Submission 6: Brunch Breads

Another easy one, but why not get these out of the way, right?

A delicious set of loaves, one with eggs and ham the and other with Nutella and roasted nuts. What's not to love about that!

We don't tend to eat a lot of bread so I made a half batch and only made the Nutella loaf.  easy enough if you've made bread before. As simple as Mixing -> Kneading -> Resting -> Spreading ->Rolling -> Baking.

I also cut the loaf to be an Epi style so I could just tear pieces of as I please...

RECIPE:

Basic Bread Mix:
3 (1/4 ounce/7 gram) sachets dried yeast
2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) bread flour, plus extra flour, for dusting.
Just over 1 pint tepid water (625 millilitres)
2 level tablespoons sea salt
1 ounce (30 grams) sugar

Savoury Rolled Bread of Parma Ham, Egg, Cheese, Egg, and Basil:
10 slices Parma ham
8 large organic eggs, boiled for 8 minutes and shelled
14 ounces (400 grams) cheese (a mix of Cheddar, Parmesan, Fontina, mozzarella, or any leftovers that need to be used up), grated
2 handfuls fresh basil
Sun-dried tomatoes
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Sweet Rolled Bread of Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Banana:
1 jar chocolate spread
Chopped toasted hazelnuts
2 bananas, sliced

Basic Bread Mix: Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a dough. Cut the dough in half.

Roll one piece of dough out into a long rectangular shape about 1/2 inch (1 centimetre) thick, about 39 1/2 inches (1 meter) long and 12 to 15 inches wide.

Savoury: Along the middle of the first piece of rolled out dough, lay out your Parma ham, eggs, cheese, basil, and tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pull the dough over the filling so it forms what looks like a cannelloni shape.

Bring one end round to the other so that they join up. Pinch and pat the two ends together firmly to form a doughnut shaped bread. Brush on olive oil and sprinkle the loaf with a little sea salt and rosemary. Transfer to a baking tray dusted with flour and allow to proof for 15 minutes.

Place in a preheated 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) oven until golden, about 35 minutes.

Sweet: On the second piece of the rolled out dough use a palette knife to cover the surface with chocolate spread. Sprinkle some toasted chopped hazelnuts and the sliced banana onto the dough. Roll up into a cannelloni shape and then roll the long snake shape inside itself to form a snail shape. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Transfer to a baking tray dusted with flour and allow to proof for 15 minutes.

Bake in a preheated 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 35 minutes.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings per loaf
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Difficulty: Medium

Chicken Lettuce Cups

Another midweek meal for the family. Not a huge meal, but the noodles, vegetables and chicken will not leave you feeling like you've only had an appetizer. I also love to stray away from the standard fork and knife; starch, vegetable and protein plate.

Ingredients

For the Sauce:
1 Tbs Soy sauce
1 Tbs Fish sauce
1 Tbs Brown sugar
1 Tsp Grated ginger

For the cups:
4 Sliced chicken thighs
Butter lettuce
Sliced jicama
Sliced red cabbage
Sliced mango
Boiled chowmein noodles
1 Red chilli pepper

Preparation

Begin by frying the chicken thighs in some sesame oil or other frying oil on Med-High heat. once the meat starts to brown add the soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar and ginger.  Turn down the heat to medium,
this should thicken and make a sticky sweet sauce for the chicken.

While the sauce is thickening, pull some leaves from the butter lettuce and arrange them on your serving plate. Begin adding your fillings; add the jicama, cabbage, and chowmein noodles.

Evenly distribute your chicken on top of the cups and then add the mango slices.

Finely chop your red chilli and sprinkle over the cups.  additionally I added to black sesame seeds, but these are optional. You could also add some nuts or seeds like cashews.


Enjoy! Knife and fork optional I much prefer to dig in with my hands on this meal.

Jamie Oliver Challenge Submission 5: Margaritas

On a warm spring evening, Chef Dharma decided to honour the agave and get his shake on. The margarita is great because it is essentially three shots of high proofed liquor. For me, drinking is all about ratios: understand the ratio, find the meniscus on your shot glass, pour abundantly, don't let your ice melt, and ride the euphoric buzz while enjoying the taste and texture.

Jamie's ratio was two ounces tequila, one ounce Cointreau and one ounce lime juice.

I went with the Hornitos Plata for a nice clear white tequila. I felt that this was a step up from Jimador or Jose Cuervo. Instead of Cointreau, I went with the generic Trip Sec. I used a combination of Real Juice lime juice and fresh lime wedges. Due to the untimely droughts in early 2014, the price of limes has sky rocketed and Chef Dharma used them sparingly.

I salted the rims on some tumblers and served the drinks on the rocks. Simple and refreshing for a nice, stiff, backyard drink.






Drinking alone is acceptable, but clearly not as fun. Share your drinks, don't drive drunk, know your limits.

Until next time,

Chef Dharma

Mint Jelly Interlude

Chef Dharma:

As I went about preparing the backyard for a summer of Jamie Oliver fueled BBQs, I was surprised to see that my mint plant had evolved into a giant bush of flavor. Two things came to mind: more dranks (drinks with a twang) or some sort of herbal condiment. Although Chef Dharma is known to enjoy a mojito or mint julep (these posts may come in the future), I decided to get out of my wheelhouse and try for a mint jelly.

As a prelude to my adventure, I must warn you that I am a challenged canner and am not particularly skilled in the art of preserving. Fresh, raw and seared is my slogan, as opposed to salted, cured and sterilized. Nevertheless, I have much respect for the preservation of foods, as this skill is what allowed my ancestors to survive when the crops ran dry and the antelope ran away.

Mint jelly is really a simple creation: extract some mint flavour by boiling crushed leaves in water. This leaves you with a brown liquid, not the bright green fluoride look we all associate with mint flavouring.

Next, I followed the recipe and added heaps on heaps of sugar and then some lemon juice. A bit of pectin and food colouring (quite a bit of you want that real bright green look) and that's it.

Also had to sterilize my Mason Jars, which is not the most glamorous thing in the world.

The product was tart and sweet, albeit runny. This is because I chose to be stubborn and not add the 3 full cups of sugar required for the 3 cups of liquid. The amount of fine white sugar that is consumed for preserving fruits and making jellies is quite ridiculous. In the future, I will go with the "No Sugar Needed" liquid pectin variety. 

                                   

I look to throw this green solution on my next roasted lamb shank or some salty chicken creation. 

Also, the remainder of my mint will go in smoothies for a fresh boost. Excelerate your breathe! 

Live well,

Chef Dharma