Samosas

I love samosas. This is a vegetarian recipe, but you can add minced lamb to the mixture if you prefer the meat version. I made mine with filo pastry – you can make the traditional samosa pastry if you like, but it is quite an art to get it right, and filo crisps up really well when you fry them. I asked my Indian friend Kesh if it is ok to use filo and he said yes, so if it’s good enough for him then I don’t feel too bad about cheating. Like the onion bhajias, you can fry these in advance and heat them up later in a hot oven.

Samosas and onion bhajias

To make the filling you need:

2 onions chopped

4 medium potatoes diced small

2 carrots diced small

2 cups of frozen peas

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of green masala paste (if you haven’t got any – whizz up a green chilli with 2 large cloves of garlic and and inch of root ginger)

1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh crushed garlic

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)

1/2 tablespoon ground coriander (dhania)

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin (jeera)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

a large handful of coriander leaves finely chopped

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of sunflower or groundnut oil in a large pan or wok with a lid

2. Add the onions and fry gently for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

3. Cover and simmer over a low heat for up to 45 minutes (the cooking time will depend on how large the pieces are).

4. Test regularly with a knife to see if cooked (try a potato).

5. Stir through some butter or non dairy spread while still warm, and then set aside to cool.

Next step you need butter or non dairy spread and some cornflour.

6. Melt some butter or non dairy spread to brush on the pastry.

7. Mix 1 teaspoon of cornflour with water to make a runny paste – this can be used to ‘glue’ the filo edges together if the samosas are a bit loose.

Once the filling has cooled, spread out some filo pastry on a work surface.

Take one sheet and brush it with the butter and place another sheet over the top.

Slice the sheet vertically into approx 5 strips.

At the bottom of a strip place a spoonful of filling. Fold the corner over in a triangle, then back again in a zig zag pattern until the whole strip of pastry has been used. Seal the end with a dab of the cornflour paste.

Click here for a folding diagram.

Carry on until all of the filo and mixture is used up.

Deep fry in hot oil until brown and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper.

If not eating immediately they can be finished in a hot oven for 10 minutes.

Onion Bhajias

These little onion bhajias are magic – I think it’s nice to make them small because they end up crispier and not at all stodgy. If you are not eating them straight away, you can deep fry them in advance, and then finish them off in a hot oven which will crisp them up nicely.

Onion bhajias

What you need depends on how many you are going to make – I managed to get around 25-30 small ones out of this mixture:

1/2 cup of chick pea flour (chana flour or gram flour)

1 cup of self raising flour

2 onions halved and then sliced finely so that you get long bits which will crisp up

1/4 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin (jeera)

1 teaspoon ground coriander (dhania)

1/4 teaspoon crushed star anise (soomph)

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon of green masala paste (if you don’t have this whizz up half a green chilli, a large clove of garlic and 1/2″ root ginger)

200ml water

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the water to make a batter and mix till smooth (you can use a blender if you like), then add the onions and mix well.

2. Heat some oil in a large pan or deep fat fryer – it will be hot enough when a tiny drop of batter fizzes and rises to the surface.

3. Using two spoons press the batter into small balls – it will look like it wants to fall apart, but when you add it to the oil it will bind together and be ok.

4. Use tongs to fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping every minute.

5. Drain on kitchen paper.

6. Either eat immediately or warm up later in a hot oven for about 10 minutes.

 

You can make a mint sauce to dip these in by whizzing up the following ingredients:

Yoghurt, salt, fresh mint, fresh coriander, pinch of garam masala.

 

 

 

Ha-Lu, Mt Hawthorn

Everybody who knows me knows how much I love Ha-Lu. It is one of my top 5 Perth restaurants.

The menu changes from time to time and the new dishes are always exciting. Here is a photo diary of tonight’s visit.

Lychee chu-high – Shochu based cooler

This is a drink called a chu-high which contains some Shochu. They also do ume plum and yuzu flavours which contain tiny jelly pieces. All three are lovely.

Sashimi of the day

The sashimi is always really high quality – this is scallops, salmon and kingfish. The wasabi provided is nice and hot – as it should be.

Tuna and watermelon

Tuna and watermelon is a new dish on the menu – lovely fresh raw tuna on slices of succulent watermelon. With different toppings, mustard mayo, spring onion, radish and wasabi.

Root vegetable salad

This is a dish which I always order at Ha-Lu. A salad with root vegetables such as potato, sweet potato, carrot, lotus root, with soy mustard dressing and a perfectly poached Onsen style egg in a crispy wanton basket. The whole dish is a delight.

Tori Tempura

This is another new dish – soft succulent chicken tempura served with ponzu dipping sauce, plum mayo, and hiding underneath the pile of chicken is some pickled turnip. Very very good quality dish.

Miso soup

I don’t know the secret ingredient, but Ha-Lu miso soup always tastes particularly delicious.

Scallops Nanban

Another favourite – lovely plump scallops on a crispy lotus root with radish, chilli flakes and black caviar.

Duck with aubergine and madeira

This is a signature dish of Ha-Lu. Tender duck breast with slices of perfectly cooked aubergine and different dipping sauces – madeira, mustard, wholegrain – always a favourite.

No room for dessert. If you haven’t tried Ha-Lu yet, please do, it is a tapas style approach to Japanese food – if you think Japanese food is all about raw fish and sushi, think again.

Xintiandi, Francis St

I have only ever been to Xintiandi for lunch time dim sum. It serves consistently good dim sum, and I have tried some others in the area, but tend to come back here. It used to be called Jade, but had a bit of a makeover about a year ago.

The interior of the restaurant is quite nice, with purple wall fabrics and glass balls floating from the ceiling. The queue on Sunday lunchtimes can get quite long, it all seems to depend when you turn up – the business peaks around 1pm, but I have never had to wait for more than 20 minutes for a table.

If you are lucky, you will be there when they serve soft shell chilli crab as a special.

If you have not had dim sum before (or yum cha as Australians tend to call it), dim sum means ‘touch the heart’, and they are little morsels of food to do just that. There are a lot of dumplings – I try to have plenty of steamed dumplings to counteract the amount of fried dim sum which is also available. Traditionally some dumplings go together – siu mai go with har gao. I also like to have steamed glutinous rice in a lotus leaf which is rice mixed with chinese sausage, meats, egg and mushroom. Another favourite is cheung fun or rice flour rolls which contain bbq pork, prawns or chicken, and come with an oyster sauce dressing. You can also order off the menu if you like.

Here is a selection of some of my favourite dishes:

 

Prawn and Seaweed rolls

Steamed scallop dumplings

Siu Mai pork and prawn dumplings

Crispy seafood dumplings with salad cream

Prawn and mushroom dumplings

Sticky rice in lotus leaf

Sticky rice outside of the lotus leaf with mixed meats

Five Bar Beaufort St, Mount Lawley

Last night we wandered around Mount Lawley looking for somewhere to have dinner, and ended up in Five Bar (or is it Bar Five?). I like this bar, I have had a pre-dinner drink in here before and the bar food looked interesting and appetising, so thought we would give it a try. They also have a nice wide selection of beers, wines and spirits.

I love the bars around Mount Lawley – you can fit right in no matter how old you are, how dressed up you are, there are tables of casually dressed seniors sitting comfortably amongst tables of giggling model lookalikes, along with surfer dudes that look like they have stepped off the beach, and dating couples occupying quiet corners. Some visitors enter quietly, others sashay in as if on a catwalk, but it all seems to work and fit with the ‘anything goes’ comfortable vibe of the area.

We sat in a comfy chair and ordered some tapas style dishes from the menu. You can also order meat and cheese platters and larger meals, but we fancied a selection of smaller items.

Table number playing card

When your order is taken they give you a playing card for a table number which is quite quirky (like Sayers – they give you an alphabet character).

Mixed meat terrine

I loved the mixed meat terrine. It tasted like Christmas in a mouthful – chicken, pork and turkey, with a lovely citrus chutney – I wished we had more bread to accompany it though.

Steak Tartare

This dish was the star of the meal – perfectly shredded raw beef with egg, horseradish and red onion. The horseradish was ‘proper’ horseradish – nice and punchy, not the mild creamy version that is so often used. Whole dish perfectly executed. Again we could have done with more bread. I would happily have this dish again.

Chorizo with capsicum

The chorizo in this dish was very very strongly flavoured. The capsicums were nicely cooked and went well with the chorizo, but the overall flavour was too strong and overpowering. I would give this a miss next time.

Chips with curry aoili

Chips don’t get much better than this.

Will I be going back to Five Bar? Yes I will, I won’t choose the chorizos again, but I know that I will get a very satisfying meal. Looking forward to trying other items from the menu when I go back – the goat balls looked interesting.

Char kway teow

Char kway teow

If you have leftover chicken or some veggies to use up, there’s nothing easier than char kway teow for a quick supper.

You will need some flat rice noodles (pad thai noodles) and some beansprouts – I tend to use the dry ones and allow 75g dry weight per person, but you can use the ready softened ones if you like.

1. Boil the kettle, and soak the dry noodles in a bowl in boiling hot water – they will take about 5 minutes to soften – test them regularly and drain them in a colander when they are done to your liking.

2. Peel and chop a clove of garlic, slice a small onion, and any other veggies that you may have handy – you can slice mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum, chilli, carrot etc. most veggies will work as long as you slice them small enough to cook quickly.

3. If you have some leftover roast chicken, slice that too, you can also use prawns – I think that raw tiger prawns work best, each prawn chopped into 3 or 4 pieces. I also add sliced chinese sausage to mine, but you don’t have to if you can’t find any.

4. Heat some oil in a wok – use peanut or canola oil because they will not add flavour. Fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes, then add vegetables in order of hardness – harder veggies first (like carrot and capsicum), squishier veggies last (like tomato and beansprouts).

5. If you like it spicy, add a generous dollop of chilli paste while you are cooking the veggies.

6. Add the leftover chicken or prawns. Add two to three tablespoons of ketjap manis (thick sweet soya sauce), and a squeeze of lime. Now add the drained noodles and stir fry, coating the noodles in the sauce.

7. Garnish with some crispy onions. Nice.

 

India Cottage Clarkson

It’s not easy to find a nice curry restaurant in Perth. My personal favourite has always been Shehnai in Ocean Reef, and I have tried lots of recommended restaurants in Perth City but tend to find that they are either bland or the spices are too raw due to undercooking. India Cottage in Clarkson is a pleasant surprise – the curries similar to the UK style curries. I found the naan was cooked perfectly and each curry that we ordered was individually flavoured (didn’t taste like they were made with the same sauce). The rice portion was huge – a portion for one will serve two people.

The wait staff were also really nice and smiley. I will definitely be paying a return visit.

Vegetable naan

Tarka dhal

Prawn jalfrezi

Chicken dhansak

 

Veggie samosas

Beluga Claremont

Last weekend I went to Beluga. It is a restaurant in Claremont that serves modern Australian food. It does have Beluga caviar on the menu too if you want to spend $120 on a starter.

Beluga is a seafood restaurant but also does much more. It focuses on fresh local food, and we chose the option where the chef chooses the best dishes of the day for you. This is not a degustation menu – he just chooses what he thinks you will like.

Zucchini flower stuffed with seafood mousse

Beef carpaccio with creme fraiche

Scallops with fennel, grapes and chorizo

We were presented with three starters and they all tasted incredibly good, especially the scallops. When we were asked for our dietary requirements, I did ask the chef to keep dairy to a minimum, but I’m not really sure that he bothered considering that there would have been dairy in the seafood mousse and the cheese on the carpaccio.

Suckling pig on polenta

Salad with pear, rocket, walnuts, witlof and St Agur cheese

The main course was suckling pig on a cheesy polenta base, served with a salad. The salad was lovely, but I found the suckling pig hard to eat. There was a lot of the pig, it wasn’t particularly crispy, and at times quite fatty, it is probably not a dish that I would choose again. It didn’t have enough flavour for me to keep wanting more.

We chose not to take dessert at Beluga, and went to nearby Koko Black which is a chocolate cafe.

I will return to Beluga, I think that it has a lot of promise, but this time I will choose my own dishes. There is also a really nice bar just across from Beluga called the Duchess – I would like to spend some time in the bar before going to Beluga – the staff were excellent, drink service impeccable, and they played good music too.

 

Roast Dinners

Everybody loves a roast dinner, and as far as I am concerned anything goes – have what you enjoy and mix it up a bit. Most would consider that yorkshire puddings are only okay with beef, stuffing is only okay with poultry, red wine with red meats, white wine with poultry. Forget what you are ‘supposed’ to do, and eat/drink what you think is delicious.

Roast chicken, potatoes, swede, brussels, yorkshire pudding and gravy

The star of the roast dinner is the meat (unless you are vegetarian), and it will make everything more delicious if you have the correct cooking utensils. I like to cook my meat on a rack and I have a lovely purpose made baking tray with a rack inside. When the roast meat is resting, I transfer the tray to the hob and use it to make my gravy – that way you don’t waste the lovely meat juices. If the meat has created a lot of fat, I drain most of the fat off first, but I make sure that my gravy includes all of the lovely caramelised bits that have fallen off the meat. I also cook the potatoes under the rack so that they soak up the lovely meat juices while they are cooking, but we’ll move on to potatoes later.

Roasting tray with rack

Cover rack with foil for easier washing up

I hate the effort involved in washing up, so I always take a few minutes to wrap the bars of my cooking rack with foil, then when the cooking is complete, washing up the rack is easy. Another good tip is to organise the height of the shelves in the oven before you turn the oven on – make sure that you can slide the tray with the meat into the oven easily and it is not touching the shelf above.

If you don’t have a purpose built tray with a rack, another good tip is to use a sliced onion as a trivet. You can either slice the onion quite finely and spread it out in the bottom of the tray and then place the meat on top, or slice an onion horizontally into three or four equal slices, and then place them in the tray and balance the meat on top of them. The onion will smell lovely while cooking and will end up really soft and caramelised (you can serve some with the dinner), it will also add bags of flavour if you cook the potatoes in the tray around the onions.

When you buy the meat, if you are going for red meat, choose something that has a layer of fat on top to keep the joint moist, and preferably a joint with a nice marbling of fat through the meat – not too fatty, but certainly not too lean either. If it has no fat at all, it will not taste delicious. If you are worried about the meat drying out, buy some streaky bacon and cover the meat with a lattice of bacon to keep it basted while cooking. When you roast a chicken, you can keep it moist by carefully making a pocket between the skin and the breast meat, and placing oil or butter (or dairy free spread) inside the pockets. I never stuff chicken because it alters the cooking time too much – I always place my stuffing in a separate dish. The chicken legs will take longer to cook than the breast meat, so pull them away from the body of the chicken to allow the hot air to circulate around them and cook them perfectly. If you leave them tucked up close to the chicken you could end up with raw legs and cooked breast, or dry breast and cooked legs. If roasting poultry, I usually squeeze lemon juice over the prepared bird, and then put a quarter or two of the lemon inside the cavity so that it releases a lemony aroma as it cooks.

Chicken with seasoned butter under the skin, oil, pepper and lemon

Roast dinners are easy, and in my opinion probably one of the easiest meals to make because they are quite forgiving if you get the timing a bit wrong. The meat will need resting time, so it is perfectly okay to wait until the meat is cooked before starting the veg. The meat will not get cold if you wrap it in foil and cover it with clean tea towels to keep it cosy.

So first of all – work out what you are having and get your timings right. The cooking time will depend very much on a) your oven b) the size of the meat c) how cold it is to start with d) if it is on the bone or filleted and e) how well done you like it cooked.

Personally I like my meat medium-rare (beef, lamb, duck), but not pork or chicken – you shouldn’t really have pork or chicken rare, but also not overcooked – the pinkness should have just gone. You can use a meat thermometer if you are not sure. If I have guests who like their meat well done, I cook slightly longer than normal, and after resting I give the end pieces to the ‘well done’ guests and save the middle pieces for me. If the end bits are not well done enough – put them back in the hot oven on a plate once sliced – they will soon cook on some more.

I never use a meat thermometer, I tend to use the skewer method where you stick a metal skewer into the thickest part of the meat and check the colour of the juices. If the juices contain too much blood, it needs longer.

Once the meat is cooked, transfer it to a plate and cover with foil and some thick tea towels or hand towels to keep it warm. It will need resting for up to 20 minutes. This is the ideal time to start your vegetables – root veg can take up to 20 minutes – swede, cauliflower and brussels will take longer than cabbage, carrots and peas.

Roast Chicken

Potatoes should be a real star of roast dinners – crispy and delicious. I always cut mine lengthways to get the largest surface area:

Slice lengthways

Then put the potatoes in a saucepan and bring them up to the boil, simmering them for approx 5 minutes. Drain them. Shake them around a little to rough up the edges, and place them in the roasting tray with the meat so that the meat can drip onto them.

I usually put around 1-2 tablespoons of lard in the tray, but you can use oil if you don’t like to use lard.

Roast potatoes once cooked and covered with the caramelised meat juices

Roast potatoes ready to serve

To make the gravy, remove the potatoes from the pan – they can be transferred to a heatproof plate and put back in the oven to keep warm. This is an ideal time to put the yorkshire pudding into the oven, as it takes about 20 minutes, and you can crank the oven up to a nice hot setting 200-220 deg C.

Put a stock cube in the gravy pan with a little water (not too much) and warm it on the stove top.

Gravy – to start off

Once the veggies have cooked you can then transfer the hot vegetable water to the gravy pan – this will add a lot more flavour to the gravy.

Gravy

For instructions on yorkshire pudding click here.

Yorkshire pudding

So here is a plan for the meal:

1. Turn on the oven. Prepare the meat and work out the cooking time and temperature (there are lots of charts available online, but the exact time will vary depending on your oven, so use the chart as a guideline). Peel your potatoes and slice them lengthways.

2. Put the meat into the oven and start boiling the potatoes. They should take about 5-10 minutes to come to the boil, then simmer for approx 5 minutes and shake and drain.

3. Put the potatoes in the oven with the meat.

4. Prepare the other vegetables and put them in saucepans. If using parsnips or sweet potatoes or squash, season and oil them – they will need approx 40 minutes roasting depending on how small they are sliced – I recommend large pieces. The seasoned veg for roasting can then go into the oven approx 20 minutes before the meat comes out.

5. Prepare yorkshire pudding mixture and stuffing if required.

6. Stuffing takes about 40 minutes, yorkshire pudding takes 20 minutes. Select a container for the yorkshire pudding and put some lard or oil into it. This container will need to go into the oven to warm up 10 minutes before the meat comes out.

7. Prepare serving plates and dishes.

8. Go and relax, check the meat periodically and turn the potatoes.

9. 20-30 minutes before the meat is cooked, put the roasting veg/stuffing into the oven.

10. 10 minutes before the meat is cooked, warm the yorkshire tin.

11. Just before the meat comes out, start heating the veg in saucepans (depending on timing).

12. Take the meat out and cover to keep warm. Put the yorkshire pudding in, crank up the oven.

13. Put the potatoes on a plate and keep warm.

14. Start the gravy with a little water.

15. When the veggies are nearly cooked, carve the meat, then finish the gravy using the vegetable water, and serve everything together.

16. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Pea and Ham Soup

It’s always hard to know what to make for work lunches, and I get fed up with having the same things over and over again. Making something dairy and gluten free is even more of a challenge. I love Campbell’s Country Ladle pea and ham soup, but I wanted to have a go at making my own because at least that way you know exactly what goes in. This recipe turned out to be delicious.

290g split green peas – give them a few good washes but no need to soak overnight

Half a zucchini diced

1 carrot diced (optional – I am not allowed carrots so I left this out)

1 medium potato peeled and diced

1 onion peeled and diced

2 large cloves of garlic peeled and crushed

2 sticks of celery washed and chopped

approx 500g bacon/ham meat – if you use hocks allow about 700g because the bone will be discarded – I used Bertocchi smoked ham leg which comes in a big chunk – cut the meat into 5 chunks of about 100g each, or if you are using hocks just leave them on the bone

1.5 litres water

1. Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan and fry off the onions, garlic, celery, zucchini and carrot for about 5 minutes.

2. Add the diced potato and stir it around for a minute or so.

3. Add the peas, ham and water, bring to the boil and simmer gently with the lid on for approx 2 hours.

4. Take the meat out and if using hocks, take the meat off the bone. Cut the meat into small pieces and flake it apart, it should fall apart nicely.

5. Place the rest of the soup in a blender or use a blending attachment (like a baby food blender) to puree the soup.

6. Add the meat back to the soup and mix well. Re heat and season (you may not need salt if your ham is smoked). If you like a thicker soup, simmer with the lid off to reduce it.