Weekend Cooking: Gyoza (Pork Dumplings)

It's been a big few weeks in my house.

In the space of 10 days my life changed completely with my son getting an offer to go and play junior college basketball in America, organising everything and then he was gone! It's a bit weird to think that my then 18 year old son moved to the other side of the world, but he did.

People are asking me if I miss him, and of course the answer is yes, but it's actually not too bad. In many ways it's almost as if he's been in his bedroom playing Xbox for the last month but there are a few differences. For one, if I buy a block of chocolate it's still there 3 days later, unless I eat it of course. I haven't bought milk since he left,  and there's no dirty dishes when I get back home.

One of the other things is that I can revisit recipes that I have made before and he wasn't keen on. This week, for example, I made Baked Zucchini, Tomato and Parmesan risotto. I made it a couple of years ago and my son wasn't keen but when I made it this week the boyfriend was super impressed and has already asked me to make it again. I was going to post the recipe for this today but it turns out I already did that 4 years ago, so I needed a plan B.

One of the things that I really enjoy doing with the BF is cooking, and he really likes it too. Most weekends we say what will we cook and we'll do it together, and often it is something new to both of us. Over the last few months, we've made things like Yorkshire Pudding and he's mastered Creme Brulee. I've tried baking new cakes and his son loves my Vanilla slices so I get regular requests to make that as well.

Today, though, we made dumplings!! It's something we talked about doing a while ago and this weekend is when it is going to get done. We're starting with a relatively basic recipe and then we will probably progress from there to slightly more complicated recipes.

Here's the basic recipe that we are using:

Gyoza (Pork Dumplings)

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 55g (3/4 cup) coarsely chopped green cabbage
• 2 tablespoons water
• 250g pork mince
• 2 shallots, trimmed, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 24 gow gee wrappers
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil, extra
• 160ml (2/3 cup) water, extra
• Hakubaku Chilli Soy Noodle Sauce or soy sauce, to serve

Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook ginger and garlic, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add cabbage and water. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes or until the cabbage wilts. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside to cool. Stir in pork, shallot, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil. Season with salt.

Place 1 wrapper on a clean work surface. Place 2 teaspoonfuls of pork mixture in the centre of the wrapper. Brush edges with water. Fold over to enclose filling. Pinch edges together. Place on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Repeat with remaining wrappers and pork mixture.

Heat half the extra vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Cook half the gyozas for 2 minutes or until bases are golden. Add half the extra water. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes or until cooked and liquid has evaporated. Transfer to a serving platter. Cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining oil, gyoza and water. Serve with chilli sauce or soy sauce.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Honey Sponge Roll

A couple of weekends ago I was at the boyfriend's house and I was feeling the need to make something. Because I am still in trying to impress mode I asked him what he would like. Should I make chocolate cake or brownies or lemon syrup cakes or white chocolate cheesecake, After a short deliberation, he looks at me and says that he wants a Bee Sting cake. Now, given that wasn't one of the options given I was a little surprised, but I went off to the internet to see if I could find a recipe.

Now it turns out that a Beesting cake is a kind of German honey flavoured yeasted cake with a kind of toffee topping, that needs to be beaten for quite lengthy period of times, and in some recipes left overnight before finishing, so in the end I went back and said no. There were a couple of reasons. The first was that I hadn't bought my stand mixer with me, and the second was that it sounded way too hard.

On Sunday morning though, I had a brain wave. The signature dish of one of my former colleagues is a honey log roll. It would have the honey and cream component that he was looking for, but without the hard work. Never mind the fact that we didn't have the mixer to be able to whip the egg whites. In the end he did that using the whisk attachment to a stick blender. Never mind that I have never attempted to make a sponge before and that I had never attempted a roll type cake at all. Thank goodness you can search the internet and find most things. A few minute and we had a recipe!! A quick trip to the shops to buy a baking tray and it was time to bake.

In the end I was super happy with how it turned out. It was so delicious, and I will definitely be making this again!

Honey Sponge Roll

4 eggs, separated
½ cup (110g) caster sugar, plus extra, for dusting
½ cup (75g) cornflour
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon honey, at room temperature
Honey cream filling
90g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan. Lightly grease and line base and sides of a 26cm x 32cm swiss roll pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until mixture is thick and glossy. Beat in egg yolks until just mixed.

Meanwhile, finely sift cornflour, flour, spices and baking powder. Lightly fold into egg mixture with honey, mixing gently until evenly distributed. Fill prepared pan shaking gently to spread mixture evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and firm when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Turn out onto a tea towel lightly dusted with extra caster sugar. Quickly peel off paper and trim edges. Roll up immediately in tea towel starting from short edge. Leave to cool completely.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter until pale and creamy. Add honey and beat until well mixed. Add 2 tablespoons water and continue beating until mixture is smooth and creamy. Unroll cake and spread over filling. Roll up again and serve cut across into slices.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Oooh la la!!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got a stand mixer for my birthday back in June. That was only part of my present though. The other part was a cooking lesson experience. Or more precisely, a French Dinner Party cooking lesson, and I finally got to do it on Wednesday night at Gourmet Kitchen Cooking School.

The dinner party is either available as the finale of a six weeks beginner course, or as a standalone lesson, so the group was a mixture of the people who had been doing the course or as a one off. I was one of two people who were only doing the dinner, but despite that we still felt welcomed by the rest of the group.

I had had a busy day at work so it was a bit of rush but I got to the cooking school just in time to start cooking. A quick wash of the hands, and it was time to start. Even just the sound of the menu was a bit intimidating but I guess this is why we do things like cooking classes...to find out what is and isn't achievable.

Below is the menu that we cooked. When I look at it, I do think 70's dinner party but someone who has been to France recently has confirmed that it is still very much on the menu now. Of course, I might need to go to France myself to prove it. You know, scientific research purposes.

Chicken Liver Pate
Twice Baked Cheese Souffle
Beef bourguignon
Creme Brulee

Of these, I would never have attempted to make pate or souffle. I have made easy versions of bourguignon, and my partner is making creme brulee on a regular basis in an effort to perfect it, so I knew that wasn't as difficult as it might seem.

Working together, the group all performed the necessary tasks to bring the dinner together. We started with the beef as it needed to be cooked the longest. The interesting thing was that the recipe included deli meats called speck and kaiserfleisch which are pork products with a smokey flavour and a thick layer of fat that rendered down as part of the cooking process. The other tip that I learned much later in the night was that you can use pureed steamed carrots to thicken a stew. You couldn't taste the carrots but it certainly seems like a better way to thicken than adding cornflour and water like a normally do.

While the cooking process for the bourguignon was quite lengthy, it was definitely worth the extra effort. Beef, red wine, shallot, celery, and mushroom combining perfectly with creamy mash potato (both in terms of texture and also the ingredients that went into the potato - there was no shortage of cream and butter all night).

Then we made the pate. I don't mind pate on occasion, but I don't think I would necessarily have thought about making it myself. I was surprised to see that it wasn't actually that difficult to make, with the most time consuming parts of the process being the cleaning up of the chicken livers and then making sure that they are completely cooked. It did taste delicious with toasted slices of baguette. One word I would probably use to describe it would be rustic. It wasn't chunky at all, but it was thicker and more solid than the pre-made pate that you buy in the shops.

Next, onto the twice baked cheese souffle - something that I would always have thought was far too difficult to make, but it really, really wasn't that difficult. Super cheesey and super delicious. I think this will be the first thing that I try to make at home.

One handy tip I learned was that when you are making any kind of bechamel sauce if you heat your milk up separately and then add it in slowly as normal it should speed up the thickening process. I am definitely going to try this next time I make any kind of white sauce.

When I first looked at the website to see what we were going to make, I was really, really hoping that it would be tarte tatin. A few years ago I but creme brulee was also good, and really not difficult to make. Beautifully creamy and its always fun to get the blow torch out and melt the sugar to make the crispy topping.

The teacher, Laura, was knowledgeable and patient, and I could definitely get used to having an Alex in the kitchen to clean up after us as we made each dish!! The atsmosphere was friendly. The only thing I guess I wasn't expecting is that we didn't end up eating until around 10pm which made it a late night after an already long day.

So I guess the test of how successful a cooking class was is to ask the question would I go back again and the answer is yes, I have had a look at the website and I am contemplating both of the patisserrie masterclasses, the Japanese class, the Thai masterclass or maybe just the macarons class. Or maybe all of them.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Lime and Buttermilk cake

A few years ago now, I bought a cookbook which was written by regular finalist in the Country Womens Association of Australia baking competition. I have made a couple of recipes from it, but it has been a while since I tried anything new.

I do now have good reason to try new things though! I was very excited to get a stand mixer for my birthday, so now I have no reason not to try making all the things that I couldn't possibly make before. Now don't get too excited. It wasn't a KitchenAid or anything flash, just a run of the mill stand mixer but I love it. In fact, it does tend to come with me when I go to the boyfriend's house for the weekend whenever we have anything planned. He's even attempted freshly made bread rolls (so delicious!!).

Whilst I would say that I am an average cook there were some things in this recipe that I have never done before. For example, I have never whipped egg whites separately before. And I was able to delegate things like zesting and juicing the limes to my assistant, and he does a great job of cleaning up too!

 I haven't got the texture quite right yet, but I will! It does taste delicious!

Lime and Buttermilk Cake

250g butter at room temp
1 cup white sugar
finely grated rind of 2 limes
3 eggs, separated
200ml buttermilk
2 tbsp lime juice
2 cups self-raising flour
Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1.5 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp water

1. Preheat oven to moderate (170 degrees C) and grease a 22cm (base measurement) round cake in tin and line the base with baking paper.

2. Use electric beaters to cream butter, sugar, lime rind until white and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Add half the buttermilk, half the lime juice and half the flour and then fold through. Add the remaining buttermilk, lime juice and flour and then fold through. Use electric beaters to beat the egg whites into soft peaks, Fold into the cake mixture and spoon the mix into the tin. Use a knife to smooth the surface.

4. Bake for 50m or so or until springy to a gentle touch in the centre. Leave in tin for 5m and then turn out onto wire rack to cool.

5. Icing: Combine all ingredients until smooth and then spread over the cooled cake.

Weekend Cooking: A weekend in Sydney

This week's post could more accurately described as Weekend Eating or Weekend Away than Weekend Cooking, but let's go with this one for now!!

A couple of weeks ago now, my boyfriend and I went to Sydney for the weekend. Ostensibly we went to see the Escape from Pompeii exhibition that is on at the Australian National Maritime Museum. And that is what we did, but we also took the opportunity to do a couple of other things as well, including dinner at Koi Dessert Bar

It was an early start on the Saturday morning. We flew from Melbourne on a 6am flight so I was warned well in advance to expect grumpy BF to be on the plane with me, and that he was planning to be asleep again before the plane took off.

The exhibition was good without being great. I guess, given the title of the exhibition I was expecting it to be more about Pompeii, but it was more about the Roman navy in general with small parts focusing on the attempt to rescue people who were escaping from Pompeii.

What we really enjoyed were the other parts of the museum, particularly the replica of the Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship when he claimed Australia as British territory. We also clambered all through a decommissioned submarine.

One of the things I was really excited to see at the museum was Hartog's plate. I have long been interested in the earlier European explorations that took place, particularly on the west coast of Australia. Hartog was a Dutch sailor who in 1616 was blown off course and landed on some islands where he left a pewter plate. This is the earliest known European artifact in Australia. The original is normally housed in a museum in Holland but for a short time is on loan to Australia. Part of the reason why I am interested in this history goes back to going to visit the Western Australian maritime museum in Perth where they have preserved the shipwreck of a Dutch ship called the Batavia.

 
We had beautiful weather both days we were in Sydney which hopefully comes through in the photos. It was definitely much better than we had in Melbourne on the same weekend!!

 On the Saturday night we splashed out on dinner at Koi Dessert Bar. Koi is owned by former Masterchef participant Reynold Poernomo and his brothers. It obviously specialises in desserts given it's name but we opted for the 6 course set dinner menu for our visit. The desserts were pretty amazing it has to be said, but the mains were pretty good, although the service felt a bit rushed. For example, we had our first course before the drinks had even been brought out, and then in between one course, the waitress had taken away our cutlery and the next course arrived before she came back with the new cutlery. Also, the mains could have been a bit generous. We didn't walk out hungry, but we also weren't full.

Jerusalem artichoke and mushroom risotto - the bits on the side are dried or fried artichoke. Delicious

Beef Rib with soy potato, cipollini onion, galbi jus and green pear - Could have eaten 3 of these. The meat was so tender

Spanner crab meat with green curry, coconut tapioca risotto and green apple. This was the strongest flavoured dish

Blackberry mousse with freeze dried blackberry, shiso, beetroot gel, yogurt sorbet, and charcoal meringue - My favourite dish of the night. So delicious

I think this was tapioca cake with tonka bean ice cream and aerated chocolate. It was tasty but I preferred the other 2 desserts

Dulce with pear, ginger streusal, yuzu, ginger pear sorbet, pear compote and white chocolate

 I have to say going to a dessert bar with someone who doesn't like ice cream is both a bad and a good thing. (I know....shocking right). I felt bad that there was no ice cream free dessert for him, but then I did get to eat the ice cream that he didn't eat, so I guess I was the winner on the night. Don't feel too bad for him though. I have had to start keeping a supply of emergency cream in the house because he does love cream in any form!!

On Sunday we started with a sleep in and a leisurely stroll before we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked from under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, around to the Opera House and then kept walking around the edge of the harbour, through the Botanical Gardens and back again, until it was time to jump on the train back to the airport and home again.

Not a bad view from the hotel room

 We are already talking about what we might do next time we are in Sydney so I'd say it was a successful weekend.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Sally's Scones

 A couple of years ago (or more like 3) I posted a scone recipe here as part of Weekend Cooking.

In the comments my friend Sally gave me an alternative recipe that she calls her best ever scone recipe. This is one that she serves to the shearers that come to her sheep farm in New Zealand (no sheep jokes allowed).

Since then I have made this recipe several times, and it is very easy, and definitely the scones turn out to be very light and very fluffy, just as she promised.
Now I am posting it here so that I can find it more easily, and share it with you all of course.

Sally's Scones

4 Cups Self Raising Flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Cup of cream (300ml is ok) and it is better if the cream is sour or old
1 and a 1/4 Cups of lemonade.

Mix together until the dough comes together without working it too much. Role out to about 1 to 1 and 1/2 centimetres and then cut out using a scone cutter (although i don't have one of those so I use a glass as my scone cutter).

Bake in a hot oven (around 220C) until golden- or just starting to go brown on top. They are always light and fluffy. Serve with butter and jam, or whipped cream and jam- or even jam and cheese when cool (at least this is Sally's suggestion. I am a traditionalist and go for jam and then whipped cream on top.

Recently I hosted a morning tea with a few friends and this is the spread that we came up with, featuring still warm scones!

 

I know I said no sheep jokes but I can't resist sharing some of the photos from when I went to visit Sally a couple of years ago

Meet  Baaarnaby and Baaarbara 

And Ewe-nice

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Weekend Cooking: Double choc zucchini bread

I'm not sure how you use your blog when it comes to sharing recipes Some times I use it to post recipes that I want to try, or food experiences I have had, but most of the time I use it to post recipes that I have tried and liked and want to make again, so want a place I can go where I can easily find the recipe that I am looking for.

A couple of weeks ago we had a morning tea, That wasn't all that unusual because if there is one thing we do in our department is eat well. Afterwards though, we were talking about recipes and I mentioned making chocolate zucchini bread and then came here to find the recipe and .....nada. It wasn't here. It didn't take me long to remember who had posted the recipe. It was the gracious and inspiring host, Beth Fish Reads, so here, with her permission is that recipe, this time saved on my blog so that I can find it again when I want to make it again in the, hopefully, near future.

I will say that I don't use the pecans because of the nut allergy we have in our house.

Double Choc Zucchini Bread

1 medium zucchini

½ cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa (Dutch process is best)
½ teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan.

Grate or shred the zucchini; you should have a generous cup of squash. By hand, squeeze the squash to get out the excess liquid. (No need to go crazy here, it shouldn't be completely dry.)

Whisk the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a medium bowl. Add the zucchini. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa , espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring just until incorporated; do not over mix. Fold in the chocolate chips and about ¾ cup of the nuts.

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and top with the remaining nuts. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes. Then remove from the pan and let cool completely before slicing.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.