I hope the festivities were wonderful and the champagne was flowing freely!!! The only downside to all the partying is that invariably you end up with a fridge full of leftovers. This year we were inundated with leftover chicken so, if you ever find yourself in the same situation, here are two ways to use it up.
My first leftover chicken recipe uses one of my favourite retro ingredients, the vol au vent shell. (Sorry Glenda, still store-bought!)
And it’s simples – mix up a white sauce add some tarragon, stir in your chicken, fill your vol au vent cups, sprinkle on some cheese and in a couple of minutes you have a super cute little appetizer with which to kick off your next party!
My Chicken and Tarragon Vol Au Vents are based on a recipe I found in a Feast Magazine but can also be found here.
My next take on leftover chicken is a more modern Chicken, Avocado and Chipotle Tortilla which you can serve two ways.
I got this recipe from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder where it was originally conceived of as a wrap. I made one of these and took it to work (yes, sadly I worked between Christmas and New Year). It was tasty but I am not a fan of the taste of cooked avocado and even putting the wrap into the sandwich press was enough to turn the taste from delicious to awful. If you like cooked avocado, or you want this all to yourself, this could be just the thing for you!
If however, like me you do not like the taste of cooked avocado, or you want to share the deliciousness, turn it into a “pizza”
Heat the tortilla until crispy, sprinkle the chicken, avocado and the chipotle salsa over the top, cut into slices and serve immediately to your guests as an appetizer. (Or eat it all by yourself! I won’t judge you.
1/4–1/2 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce (or to taste)
1 sprig of coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
1 tsp lime juice
Salt and Pepper
Toothpick
Instructions
At least one hour before serving, make your salsa.
Discard the seeds from the tomato, mix with the onion, chilli, coriander and lime juice. Season to taste.
Set aside to allow the flavours to blend.
Just before serving, drain the salsa, neither of these recipes needs soggy tortilla!
For The Pizza
Heat the tortilla under the grill until it gets crispy.
Once the tortilla is crispy, take it out of the oven and top with the chicken, avocado and salsa.
Cut into slices and serve immediately.
Perfect with an ice cold beer!
For the Wrap
Warm the tortilla according to packet instructions, to soften.
Spread a line of chicken, a line of avocado and a line of salsa in the middle of the tortilla, leaving a 2 cm gap on all sides.
Fold in the bottom, rotate 90* and fold over one side then the other.
Tuck the remaining side of tortilla, securing with a toothpick.
Place into your sandwich press or under your grill and heat until the outside of the tortilla is golden and crispy.
Don’t forget to remove the toothpick before eating!
I wish you all the very best for 2016 and may it be the year all your dreams come true! Thank you for reading and commenting and being a part of my teeny corner of the internet. It’s a New Year – Let’s make it wonderful!
It’s done, fini, that’s all folks. Nearly a year to the day I have made all of the recipes I selected from Valli Little’s book Slow. I bought this for our very first Tasty Reads bookclub meeting way back in August of 2014 and cooked the last recipe I had selected on 1 September 2015.
Recipes in book: 60
Recipes marked to cook: 3438 39
Cooked to date 122238 39
Recently Cooked
p6 Braised Beef Cheeks With Salsa Verde
Can you believe that I have lost the photos of this? I was so proud of having cooked Beef Cheeks. However, I deleted a whole heap of photos from both my camera and phone before we went on holidays and I think the Beef Cheeks and the Truffle Oil Mac and Cheese fell victim to some overzealousness on my part.
I have no really ooky factor about beef cheeks although I know many people do. My only concern with cooking mine was that everything I have read about them says you have to trim them really well. I feel I might have been a bit too meticulous in this area as I there seemed to be an awful lot of “trimmings” and not a lot of beef cheek by the time I had finished.
Also, In homage to one of my favourite Melbourne restaurants, MoVida, which does an amazing beef cheeks in red wine, I replaced the mashed potatoes suggested by Valli with a cauliflower puree which was delicious – mine was not as good as the one at MoVida but that one is sublime!
Anyway, I was so glad I made this, the beef was meltingly tender and mellow and the Salsa Verde was zingy and bright. The creamy smooth cauliflower puree contrasted beautifully with both. This was amazing. Here is Valli’s picture:
p8 Braciola
Because I am not a millionaire, I did not buy a fillet of beef for this. However because I am obsessed with little food, I made a mini version of Valli’s Braciola and it was super! I used thinly pounded steaks, rolled up the filling and quickly seared them. The stuffing, which is salami, cheese and sundried tomato is to die for. This would make a lovely canapé.
p10 Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce
This is exactly what it says on the box. Steak with Mushroom Sauce. If you like Steak with Mushroom sauce, you will like this.
p22 Lamb & Apricot Tagine
One of the dishes Dani has brought to the bookclub meetings was a Lamb and Apricot Tagine. In my mind, it was the one from Persiana and when I made that one a while ago I was very disappointed as it was not nearly as nice as my memory of Dani’s. I mentioned this the next time I saw her and she said said had made the Valli Little one. I made this one a few weeks later and it was maybe still not as good as Dani’s but better than one in Persiana. Kudos to Valli Little for an amazing delicious recipe. Just no one tell Sabrina Ghayour. Because I love her.
p24 Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks
This is such a good dish for winter! Slow cooked, fragrant, hearty. Magnificent! I swapped out the peas in the recipe for beans and served with bread instead of rice.
p28 Lamb En Croute
This was the last recipe I made from Slow and it was a lovely way to finish. I was a little disappointed as even though I followed the recipe to the letter, by the time the pastry cooked, the lamb was over cooked for my taste. Next time I make this I will cut down the sear time on the lamb. And pray. p36 Macaroni Cheese with Truffle Oil
Sorry, this is another photo from the book. There is a story attached to this though. I went to…ok…in Australia we have two main supermarkets, and then we have the IGA’s and then we have the European Cheap Supermarket. Now I am quite fond of the European Cheap Supermarket except for one thing. The people who shop there, in my locale anyway are….ok….I’m going to sound elitist and snooty here but just between you and me…they’re all kinds of trashy.
To wit – the other day I went in there and was nearly barrelled over by some dude stealing a pack of biscuits. I think he thought that my going in through the turnstile would negate his charging out but no, Einstein, it doesn’t work like that and you triggered all the alarms anyway.
If I was more like a commando instead of totally living inside my head I could have taken him down and been a citizen’s arrest hero. Then again, he was stealing fake Tim Tams from Aldi. Hardly a master criminal. I like to think that if I was going to launch myself into a life of crime, I’d at least go for the real Tim Tams.
Anyhoo, all this is just cotton candy. I went into the cheap European….oh, WTF, I’ve already outed it as Aldi, a few months ago and they were selling truffles.
Only thing was no price on the truffles and, being Aldi, no one to ask. So, I took it up to the counter, along with my six slabs of their Fair Trade Dark Chocolate (amazing) and my six bottles of their Tudor Pinot Noir (even more amazing) and asked the price. Because you know…truffles…that bottle could be a thousand dollars. I’m kinda doubting that in Aldi but you know…c’est possible.
“Seven ninety nine” drawls the sales clerk.
“I’ll take ’em” I say.
And that should have been the end of it. Buyer. Seller. Agreement. Capitalism at it’s finest.
Until some toothless old hag who was behind me in line decided to get in on the act. I almost expected her first line to to “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes” But instead she snatched the bottle from the cashier’s hand and began shrieking
“Why are you paying eight dollars for such a small jar? What’s in that?”
“It’s truffles”
“So what’s that then?”
“Well…they’re…they taste kind of like the most mushroomy mushroom you ever ate but they grow…”
“I could buy a kilo of mushrooms for that”
“They’re not mushrooms”
“You said they were”
“No I didn’t”
“Well, I hope you know how to cook them better than you know how to explain them”.
Well, I hope you fuck off and die you nosey old bag. I’m sorry I’m not buying eye of newt or tongue of dog or any other ingredient I’m sure you are far more familiar with.
I used one truffle for something else then topped up the jar with some olive oil. After about a week it became quite truffle-y Then I used that oil on my Mac and Cheese. And it was good. But you know…Mac and Cheese = comfort food goodness with, or without, truffle oil.
p44 Meatballs with Heavenly Mash
Mmmm..meatballs. And that mash was heavenly. It contains cream, fontina cheese and butter. Need I say more?
p62 Roast Quail with Split Pea Dhal
Sounds very exotic. Tasty pretty ordinary. It was the first time I had cooked quail. It might be the last. I did not care for the curry butter at all.
p68 Duck Cassoulet
I hadn’t originally planned on making this, but I had some confit duck legs and some white beans from something else so and I thought why not? A better question would have been why? Not my favourite. By a long shot. I think it was the olives. I normally love olives but I just don’t think they worked in this dish.
p88 Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread
This was delicious.
p92 Cauliflower Cheese Soup
I found this too much. Too much cream. Too much cheese. Who knew either of those things existed? But apparently they do.
p104 Pumpkin, Goat’s Cheese and Onion Marmalade Jalousie
This was very tasty. I am already thinking about how to do mini versions which I think would be adorable. My only problem with this is that I find most bought onion marmalades too sweet. This one was no exception. I think I will have to start making my own. Sigh. Another thing to add to my increasing list of things I need to cook from scratch!
This is one of my favourite photo’s. I think it turned out really well.
p106 Twice Baked Souffles
The Francophile in me really wanted to like these. The rest of me found them a bit heavy. Which reminds me. Back when I used to work in the hell-hole, the area I was in merged with another department. And as part of the two groups getting to know each other we had to do this dumbarse thing where we each had little cards printed up with a picture on one side and a fact about you that no one might know on the other. And you had to swap them with everyone you met. Because we were all five. I mean really? REALLY? We’re playing SWAP CARDS? FFS people! Anyway my “fun” fact was “I am a Francophile and have just read Harry Potter in French”. And I thought that was kind of cool until one of the biggest dumbarses looked at my card and said “Francophile? Is that like a Pedophile?” For a vague second I knew exactly how those people who mow down their work mates with machine guns must feel like. It was the kind of event that made me want to re-evaluate every choice I had ever made in my life that had lead me to be in that place, at that time, swapping dumbarse cards with the terminally stupid.
p110 Mushroom & Potato Tarts
These. Were. Awesome.
Damn, they were good! I need to get these on high rotation.
p116 Bagna Cauda with Baby Vegetables
Mmmmm…salty creamy dip with vegies AKA – All the good words. I loved this. And the dip with the eggs? Out of this world good.
p118 Instant Fondue with Roast Vegetables
And just when you thought the best was past, Valli goes and saves the best to last!
I went totally over the top with this. Valli’s suggestion is roast vegetables. Which I had but I also had grissini sticks, twiggy salami, roasted olives, potato chips…anything that can be dunked, should be dunked in this. This is not only super tasty but so much fun. What a fabulous appetiser, give everyone a fork and allow them to tuck in!
I don’t think it’s any surprise that I have loved cooking from this book and there are so many recipes I will cook over and over. My favorites? The fondue above, the beef cheeks, the radicchio and gorgonzola risotto, the fish pie, the feta baked mushrooms, the recipe that made me like carrot soup. This may be a little book but it is jammed with great recipes.
Hmm…our December book club was going to be a recap on all of the books we have cooked. I am so tempted to do the instant fondue….
What do you think? Anything grab your fancy? What would you make?
I feel like I have been a bit more vitriolic this time. I’m putting it down to reading that Marie Kondo book on The Magical Art of Tidying Up. Don’t even get me started on her particlular brand of insanity but I think maybe I am cleaning out my closet mentally as well as physically.
Next up, I will be focussing on cooking through Persiana which is still, to my view, the best book we have ever done at Tasty Reads even though I liked Vall’s Lamb and Apricot Tagine better. See you with the results of that in a year.
Oh, do you have a favourite post on here? In October I will be doing a LIVE reading of a post at a local literary event. I have a couple of posts that I think might go down well in front of a live audience but please let me know what you think. And if you are local, please don’t come, I am terrified enough about doing this as it is.
Mexican was a recent selection at the Tasty Reads Book Club. I chose Cantina by Paul Wilson for my book because it is food porny to rival Sabrina Ghayour’s Persiana!
Cantina
Take a look at these pictures from Cantina.
Pacific Oyster Cebiche with Melon Salsa.
Dani made this as her bring along to the discussion and they are even more delicious in real life than the picture.
Cantina Cebiche
Ranchero Style Beef Broth With Bone Marrow Toasts
Personally, I’m not sure about eating the Bone Marrow Toasts but they LOOK amazing!
Cantina Ranchero Style Beef Broth
Street Style Tostadas With Seared Tuna and Wood Grilled Vegetables.
Would it be wrong to say this just made me want to lick the page?
Cantina Street Style Tostadas
Gorgeous right? However, as you may have spotted, this is not your typical bean and burrito Mexican. There is not a yellow box in sight. As a Mexican Dorothy might say, “We’re not in Chipotle anymore Toto”. Cantina delivers high end, highly complex Mexican food. For instance, those “Street Style” Tostadas?
22 ingredients – minimum. But you also need a base. So depending on which of the bases you choose you can add another
7 ingredients if you use the Jalopeno and Finger Lime Crema
13 ingredients if you use the Veracruz Sauce
8 ingredients if you make the Sesame Pipian. But hold up. One of the “ingredients” of the Sesame Pipian is a Tomatillo Verde which in turn contains another 8 ingredients…so that would be another 15 ingredients.
Thirty. Seven. Possible. Ingredients. And up to three separate recipes. For “street style” tostadas. And ok, I get it, sometimes you need a lot of ingredients to get a depth of flavour and that alone would not necessarily be enough to put me off a recipe.
However, these recipes were further complicated by a lot of the ingredients not being readily available in Australian supermarkets meaning a lot of ingredients having to be bought on the internet or having to drive across town to pick them up. And then some could only be bought in bulk – hence the almost kilo of padron peppers sitting in my freezer!
Not to mention that cooking from Cantina was like going down the rabbit hole – one recipe lead to another which required another…it seemed never ending! Here is a prime example.
Heirloom Tomato Escabeche
I made this – it was one of the things I took to the Book Club Night. It’s a salad. It’s a fancy salad. It’s maybe the BEST salad I have ever eaten. But it’s a salad.
However to make this salad, as per the recipe, you need to first have made the Mexican pickles. And you also have to have made the Pasilla Chilli relish.
Then you make a lime crema base…
THEN you make the salad.
Then you collapse in a corner quietly sobbing…or….erm…you know….
I did LOVE this, it was so pretty and also incredibly tasty. But so much work for a salad. Bear in mind this would usually be an accompaniment to something else – which probably also had multiple elements. It was hard enough cooking one thing. An entire meal would have sent me loopy!
Cantina Heirloom Salad Escabeche
But to really demonstrate how this book just about sent my sanity to the edge and had a damn good crack at ruining my relationship you can go no further than….
Hanger Steak with Huitlacoche Mustard and Salsa Negra.
Cantina Hangar Steak
That pictures looks pretty damn simple right? It’s steak, salad and a condiment. How hard could it be?
Let me step you through the timeline of this one meal shall I?
Week -1:
Order Huitlacoche off internet.
Day of the Hangar Steak
6:30pm – Get home from work
6:45pm: Make my Latin Spice Rub. This stuff is awesome. Because you make much more of this than required, I have sprinkled this over everything since I made it and it makes everything – steak, chicken, fish, eggs, calamari – taste better. Just beware it is hot, Hot, HOT so if you don’t like it spicy, go very easy!
Cantina Latin Spice Rub
6:55pm – Soak the dried porcinis
6:58pm – Chop onions and garlic.
7:03pm. Open can of huitlacoche. What is in the tin looks like corn covered in snot. Wonder if you have got a dodgy tin.
7:05pm. Google huitlacoche. Realise it’s supposed to look like that. Wish you hadn’t bought it.
7:15pm. Heat oil and cook onions garlic and both types of mushrooms
7:20pm. Add huitlacoche and porcini liquid.
The recipe them says to cook for 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced to a glossy sauce. This never happened. For a start it was way too chunky – bear in mind the recipe does not even tell you to chop your mushrooms (which I did) but what I had in my saucepan after ten minutes looked like chopped mushrooms and corn covered in snot.
7:40pm. “When are we eating? I’m hungr….what on God’s green earth is THAT?
“It’s mustard”
“It looks like mushrooms and corn covered in snot. Why are you making mustard? Can’t we just have Colman’s?”
“You can’t have Colman’s, we’re having Mexican. It’s special Mexican mustard.”
“It looks revolting”.
It didn’t look great. And I don’t want to be pedantic (I so totally do) but surely…a major component of anything called mustard should actually be mustard?
And don’t even get me started on the Apricot and Mescal Aioli that contained no mescal and was not any sort of aioli I ever had.
7:45. I’m staring at a hot mess in a pan, thinking maybe if I blended it it would look a little bit more like the mixture in the picture.
7:55. After some blending with the hand mixer, we now have something that looks pretty much like the picture in the book. Which is to say, like baby poo.
I’ve now been cooking for an hour and have….a spice rub and some sort of condiment which probably should not be called mustard. Which he is refusing to eat and I’m losing interest in by the second..
Never mind. The rest is steak and salad. Easy Peasy.
8:00pm. Rub the steaks with the spice rub. That can sit for a while because now, we need to turn to page 36 to make the Latin Vinaigrette for the garnish. Yes. Even the garnish requires you to move to a different page.
Latin Vinaigrette contains 10 ingredients. Roll eyes, sigh. Make Latin Vinaigrette.
8:10. Latin Vinaigrette Made.
8:15pm. Start on the Salsa Negra.
8:16pm Turn back to page 36 to make Salsa Mexicana for the Salsa Negra
8:17pm Salsa Mexicana requires a Zesty Lime Dressing found on page 37. Sigh, roll eyes start muttering swear words underbreath.
8:20pm. : “When are we eating? ”
“Soon. I just need to make the steak. And the salad”
“I thought that’s what we were having”
“It is” This through gritted teeth.
“But…you’ve been cooking for hours…why is there no steak? Or salad?”
“Because it’s Mexican and it’s driving me insane. I just need to make this dressing first. And I really need you to be quiet.”
“I thought you just made dressing”
“I did. That was a different dressing”
“Right. So you’ve been cooking for ages. And you’ve made a mustard that isn’t even a mustard and two salad dressings? When will you cook the steak? I’m starving!!!!”
“Just. Don’t. Speak. This Mexican is doing my head in and the more I have to chitter chatter with you, the longer this is going to take.”
8:30pm Zesty Lime Dressing Made.
8:40pm Salsa Mexicana made.
8:45pm “Where’s the can of black beans that we absolutely definitely had in the cupboard?”
“I ate them for lunch…”
“But….the salad is back bean salad. How are are supposed to have black bean salad with no black beans?”
“We have white beans”
“You can’t make black bean salad with white beans”
“Don’t be a bean racist”.
“Shut up”
We didn’t have white beans. By now I was slightly hysterical. Two hours and no beans to make the bean salad.
8:55pm “I’m hungry….when are we eating?”
“Shut up, I need to think”
“I’m going to have some cereal”
“Don’t eat cereal, we’re just about to have dinner”
“A likely story…”
9:05pm. We had couscous in the fridge. I ended up making the black bean salad with couscous.
9:15pm. The steak finally hits the grill.
9:30pm. Nearly three hours later, we sit down to eat. It was good. It was really good. The couscous was fine – maybe even better than black beans. But it was steak and salad. And it had taken nearly three hours to make. And i was in such a bad mood by the time it was ready I didn’t really enjoy it on the night. Next day for lunch though? Super!
And here in lies the what I feel is the dilemma of Cantina. Two and a half hours of cooking is WAY to long for a weekday meal. Ok, you could make the rub and the dressings and the mustard before hand but that it still time spent somewhere. And for me this is not a dinner party dish either. It’s something…I’m just not sure what – it’s too complex for a casual meal but not fancy enough for a dinner party meal.
Oh, and that so called mustard? I wouldn’t even bother with that. I didn’t like the taste of it and there was enough flavour in the rub and the dressings and the other bits and bobs so that you would not miss it.
And finally…here it is:
Don’t get me wrong. It was DELICIOUS. Nothing I made from Cantina was bad. Except for maybe that mustard. But you had to work hard for that goodness.
Will I cook from Cantina again? Hmmm….Possibly. There are still a few recipes I really want to try. But I would do it on a weekend. Ideally a long weekend.
Here is some of the other stuff I made:
Jalapeno and Finger Lime Crema
Mexican Style Pickles
Loved them!
Baked Devilled Eggs with Sobrasado
I did a cheaty version of this in that I swapped in similar stuff I had for the listed ingredients such as barley wraps for the corn tortillas, pancetta and salami for the serrano ham and sobrasado, cheddar cheese for the Mahon…It was still awesome if not exactly remotely authentic.
Chorizo with Apricot and (no) Mescal Aioli
Pumpkin Soup with Chorizo Migas
I had to buy achiote paste for this and didn’t like the flavour of it at all.
I do enjoy saying Chorizo Migas in a very bad (a la Speedy Gonzales) Mexcan accent though.
Your’re meant to drink this alternating with sips of a shot of tequila. I just put my tequila in the drink along with all the rest of the stuff. Loved this!
Here is the recipe for the Spice Rub, direct from Cantina. And also serves as my Spice Blend for a Daring Kitchen Challenge MONTHS ago. And hey, I guess the Hangar Steaks cover off on their Grilling challenge!
[yumprint-recipe id=’33’] I honestly feel like cooking from Cantina once a week which is what I try to do with the Tasty Read selections almost broke me. And, if the end result hadn’t almost invariably been delicious I would have gladly tossed the book in the trash multiple times. Instead, it’s filed away in the bookshelf just waiting for the right occasion. So, just know this. If you ever come to my house and I make you Mexican food that looks lovely and casual, know that I must REALLY like you! Because that stuff is hard!
It’s been a while so I thought I would give you a little update on how I am getting on with the Tasty Reads Books.
Slow: Valli Little: August 2014 pick
Slow – Valli Little
Recipes in book: 60
Recipes marked to cook: 34 38
Cooked to date 12 22
Newly Cooked
p50 Fresh Piccalilli
I did not make the Ham Hock Terrine that this was supposed to accompany but this was one super pickle!!! So fresh and tasty and zingy.
p60 Roast Chicken With Pan Roasted Romesco
This was delicious!
p64 Oven Baked Thai Chicken Curry
Meh…take it or leave it…a solid chicken curry but nothing to write home about.
Oven Baked Chicken Curry
p66 Moroccan Chicken with Olives
Sorry, I took this photo on the fly during a dinner party. Not the best quality but this dish was great. Very tasty and you can pop it in the oven and pretty much forget about it until serving time! Oh, and in the background you can see the fennel and apple salad from Persiana.
Slow – Moroccan Chicken With Olives
p70 Massaman Roast Chicken
I really wanted to cook this in style of the cover (above) but we had a heap of chicken breasts…this was delicious!
Slow – Massaman Curry Roast chicken
p74 Fish Pie
OMG. So good.
Slow – Fish Pie
Slow – Fish Pie2
p76 Green Curry With Smoked Salmon
This was ok. I probably would not make it again. It was a bit too salty with the smoked salmon and the soy and the fish sauce.
p84 Fish Tagine
Superb!
Slow – Fish Tagine
p102 Baked Mushrooms with Pine Nuts & Feta
Absolutely delicous!!!
p124 Deep Fried Brie with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Of this lot, my top three were the mushrooms, the fish pie and the tagine. And you know…fried cheese is never wrong!!! The piccalilli was really good too.
The worst was the smoked salmon curry. Funny thing was, I don’t think I had it marked as something to cook, however we bought some hot smoked salmon which was on sale so I thought I would give it a go. I should have stuck to my initial instincts.
Still To Go
p6 Braised Beef Cheeks With Salsa Verde
p8 Braciola (you’ll notice I’ve added a few in)
p10 Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce
p22 Lamb & Apricot Tagine
p24 Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks
p28 Lamb En Croute
p36 Macaroni Cheese with Truffle Oil
p44 Meatballs with Heavenly Mash
p62 Roast Quail with Split Pea Dhal
p88 Mushroom Soup with Garlic Bread
p92 Cauliflower Cheese Soup
p104 Pumpkin, Goat’s Cheese and Onion Marmalade Jalousie
p106 Twice Baked Souffles
p110 Mushroom & Potato Tarts
p116 Bagna Cauda with Baby Vegetables
p118 Instant Fondue with Roast Vegetables
Sixteen to go.
I’d like to cook them all before this August which will be the 12 month mark. Technically, that should be easy. Then again, I also have retro books, Persiana, Healthy Every Day and two Tasty Reads selections I have not even told you about yet!!! Plus at least one other bloggy project I am keen to get off the ground. We’ll see…
January may be over but I had to post one last quirky but delicious recipe. And this is a beauty. You wouldn’t think to look at it that this duck curry is one of my Spice Peddler “Oh no, let’s go crazy” recipes. But it is. So please join me on a Hop, Step and a Jump around the world as we take a look at this yummy duck curry.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
The Hop – Reunion Island
So guess what makes this duck curry so kooky?
Well, it’s got duck….duh!!! And sweet potatoes. So nothing odd there. It’s got some sun-dried tomatoes which I have never used in a curry before but a tomato is a tomato right? But you know what else it’s got? Wait for it…..vanilla beans!
Who puts vanilla beans in a curry?
Well apparently the people of the island of Reunion do.
And you know what?
It works!!!!
The Step – Tahiti
So from the Indian Ocean, we’re going to fasten our seatbelts and stow our tray tables because we’re now off to another tiny island but this time in the French Polynesian part of the Pacific Ocean.
Simon, Tahiti….
I guess the original recipe would use Madagascan vanilla beans but the Tahitian Vanilla beans which I got from the team at the Spice Peddlers has a rich fruity, floral, slightly aniseedy flavour which I think combined really well with the vegetables and the ginger in the curry.
Vanilla Duck Curry – Vegetables
The vanilla flavour here is not overpowering, it is an undertone. Unless you were told there was vanilla in it you would know there was something there but probably not automatically guess it was vanilla. . As the people of Reunion and Tahiti may say, it just adds that certain “je ne sais quoi” to what would otherwise be a pretty standard curry.
Duck and Vanilla Curry2
The Jump – Iran
I served this with one of the recipes from Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour – the Chelo or Persian Basmati Rice. I was a bit disappointed by this as one of my favourite things from Vietnamese cooking is when you have claypot rice and you get those lovely chewy almost burnt bits of rice. I really wanted my chelo to turn out like that. Sadly that was not to be.
1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, bean cut into pieces about 1 cm long
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 duck breasts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 medium onion, chopped (4 cups)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (1 cup)
1 sweet potato peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
2 to 3 sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, grated
1 whole clove
To garnish (optional)
Chopped peanuts
Chopped coriander
Instructions
Combine the vanilla seeds, curry powder and salt in a small bowl.
Score the duck breasts on the skin side (ie run the knife over the duck skin to create a cross hatch pattern. Do not go through the skin to the actual meat.
Rub the spice mixture on the duck breasts both skin and meat side.
Lay the duck breasts, skin side down, in a dry heavy-based large frying pan and gradually turn up the heat. Fry for five to 10 minutes, until most of the fat has rendered and the skin is golden brown.
Turn the duck breasts over and lightly brown the other side for a couple of minutes, or until they feel slightly springy when pressed.
Remove the duck from the pan.
Add the butter and allow it to melt.
Add the onion; cook for 5 minutes, until it has softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Add the tomato, sweet potato, sun-dried tomatoes and the clove; cook uncovered until sweet potato is just tender then add the duck back to the pan and allow to warm through.
Discard the clove and the pieces of vanilla bean before serving.
And it’s simples – mix up a white sauce add some tarragon, stir in your chicken, fill your vol au vent cups, sprinkle on some cheese and in a couple of minutes you have a super cute little appetizer with which to kick off your next party!
If however, like me you do not like the taste of cooked avocado, or you want to share the deliciousness, turn it into a “pizza”
