Banana Tart

I noticed a few days ago that one of my readers was interested in my banana tart recipe from my holiday feast. Since bananas are now back in season and cheap here right now (less than a buck a pound) then I thought this'd be a good time for the recipe.

The trick is the filling (the banana stuff). The casing is simple. Just get a pack of shortcrust pastry sheets, use a 3 inch cookie cutter, put the cut rounds into something like this:



Poke the bottoms a bit, and then bake in an oven till the pastry is done. Or you could do it even simpler: just go to the shops and get a pack of pack of pre-cooked tart shells. But they are much more expensive than the sheets.

Side note for suzer: you can get the above baking tray at Coles, they're around 6 dollars and last forever.

Now for the filling!

Firstly, make LOTS. This stuff is so good you'll be eating it by itself. The riper the banana is the better it tastes. Even the ones that are totally black on the outside are great to use.

For every pound of banana, you'll want 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar plus the juice of one lemon.

What do you do? Chop up your bananas (peel 'em first), and toss them, the sugar, and the lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat it up, stir FREQUENTLY. Keep it at a temp that's just bubbling the mixture. When it starts to a light orangish/reddish colour, then it's done (15 to 20 mins, the riper the banana the quicker it cooks).

Pour/spoon into a bowl and let it cool. Once it's cool, spoon it into the cooked pastry shells. Then eat! You can top them with whipped cream, that's good too.

The banana filling can be used for many things: ice cream topping, a spread on toast, filling in a flaky buttermilk biscuit, or just eat it as is. When I buy bananas I'll hide 5 or 6 of them and let them go black; THEN they are great for making the filling.

Hollandaise Sauce

This post first appeared on my other blog, way back in the dark ages. For those of you who've been bored enough to trawl those archives, then you've seen (scene) this already. For the rest of you (especially all my new readers!), here ya go:

Have you ever had a rich, yellow, creamy, smooth, buttery sauce at a restaurant and wondered, "how in the hell do I make that?" Or you may have wondered, "what the heck is this wonderful sauce?"

It's that yellow sauce on Eggs Benedict; it's that yellow sauce on asparagus; it's that yellow sauce served with some types of fish... Yes, you've guessed right:

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

But, alas, you've heard that hollandaise sauce is hard to make and it doesn't always come out 'right'. So off you go to the grocery store and buy a little packet of hollandaise sauce mix --you know the kind! Yup, the one with a paragraph of fine print ingredients that aren't fit to serve to your worst enemy (for those of you that gots em).

So you despair... You love the taste, but the pre-packaged crap will kill you and you don't know how to make the sauce from scratch. Never fear cus it's EASY!!! It takes all of about 3 MINUTES --no wait, it really only takes 45 seconds! No, I'm not doing a 'cheating' Hollandaise Sauce (hey, I can type Hollandaise in my sleep now), this is the real deal.

In fact, it's sooooo easy, I'm going to give you a few variations --of the recipe, get your mind out of the gutter, this is not Penthouse!


Here we go:

What you need:

1/3 cup (75 ml or 2 1/2 oz) of real butter (DO NOT USE MARGARINE!!!! More about that crap in a few posts...)
a pinch of salt (non-iodised sea salt! Ah, more about the salt you all have to put up with in the US soon)
1 tbspn (15 mls) lemon juice Have I mentioned I have my own lemon tree out front? No I haven't? Well I have now.
2 egg yolks eggs from chooks, not emus (An emu is a very cool bird, I'll try to upload a pic for y'all)


What you do:

In a small saucepan (Don't use a coated saucepan, BLECK!), heat everything except the egg yolks until the butter is melted but not bubbling. Then: TURN THE HEAT OFF.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl (ten seconds perhaps).

Pour egg yolks into saucepan while whisking like a lunatic (I can relate to that).

Use immediately

There now, wasn't that quick and easy? You can make the sauce in about 45 seconds with some practice getting the egg yolks out without the egg whites (I know three different ways, I'll pass them along to you eventually). BTW Always save the egg whites. If you aren't going to use them soon (more soon) then they freeze well, just make sure you put them in a container before tossing them in the freezer.


Now for some variations on a theme...

Use half lemon juice and half lime juice. Or all lime juice, they are both tasty.

Use some tarragon (great herb). Put the tarragon in the melted butter and let it sit for a bit before whisking in the egg yolks --you may need to SLIGHTLY heat the butter mixture back up. You can use either fresh or dried, no worries.

Roasted Leg o' Lamb

Ahhhhh, lamb... Anyone remember that sock puppet character that Shari Lewis (lady ventriliquist) did back in the 50's and 60's called Lambchop? It was on a childrens show, I do believe.

For those of you who are Lambchop fans, you may shudder as you read this: LAMB TASTES GOOD! I don't think I had ever eaten lamb till I arrived down unda, but I can understand why folks like it.

Lamb has a very delicate flavour compared to other meats. Very tender and it takes seasonings very well. Obviously, a strong, bold marinade or seasoning will overpower the lamb taste, so only use something like that if the lamb you are using is either a lesser cut, or you just happen to really like that flavour. BTW, teriyaki lamb chops on the grill are really good!

But, we aren't doing teriyaki lamb chops today. Neither are we doing the english minted lamb either. Oh, if you have lamb chops in certain parts of the UK it WILL be served with mint sauce.

No, today we are doing a leg of lamb roast with rosemary (drool)!

Rosemary is a great herb and it seems to be made for lamb. It's also one of the main herbs for chicken too (thyme and sage being a couple of others for them thar chooks). It'll grow wild down here with pretty much ZERO maintenance. If you'd like to grow it yourself you can. It propogates very well from cuttings, so if your neighbour has some, then you can have some too. If you live in an area that has winter *shudder*, then you better grow it in a pot cus you'll have to take it indoors when it's cold. It likes lots of sun and well drained soil. Don't let your indoor rosemary plant get too humid! Did you know that rosemary is part of the mint family? Well, know you do.

Quick aside: I was inspired to write this recipe down cus rachel did a grill lamb recipe on her blog and that reminded me of my steam roasted lamb. So thanks go to her, otherwise I might not of even thought of typing this in! BTW, hers sounds really really good.

Back to the food...

Roasted Leg o' Lamb

Whut u knead:

One leg of lamb on da bone
5 or 6 sprigs of rosemary, each one 8 to 10 inches long
a bit of sea salt
a bit of ground white pepper
a bit of dried mint leaves
one or two bamboo (or metal) skewers about the same diameter of the woody part of the rosemary sprigs
water
one big roasting dish with lid (it'll need to be big enough for the lamb leg)


Whut u due:

You might be able to see where I'm going with this, but for those of you who haven't figured it out... Here ya go:

Take a skewer and skewer the leg (of the lamb, not your own). Make sure you ream the hole out a few times, then follow the skewer with a rosemary sprig (the woody part of the sprig *should* push the skewer all the way through). If you can get the rosemary sprig all the way through (so that a bit of it sticks out on each side) then great. If not, no worries; just try to get it in a far as possible. Oh, push the thicker end of the sprig through first so you aren't "going against the grain" of the rosemary needles.

Same thing for the rest of the rosemary. Depending on the leg size and how far in you get the rosemary you'll use probably 4 to 8 sprigs.

Mix the bit of salt, pepper and dried mint in a bowl. Then give the leg (the one with the rosemary sticking out of it) a good rubdown with the seasonings. Place the leg in the roasting dish and pour about an inch of water around the leg. Cover that sucker and chuck it in a low oven for a couple of hours.

After 1.5 to 2 hours, turn the oven off, take lamb out, and pour the juices into a saucepan. At this point you have two was to go: cover the lamb and put it back in the oven for 15 mins while you do stuff with the juices, or leave it uncovered to "rest" while you make gravy from the juices.

I'll go through both!

1) Put the lid back on the lamb and return it to the oven (remember you turned the oven off already). To the saucepan that has pan juices, add a splash of red wine and then boil it till it's reduced by at least half.

After the sauce has been reduced, take lamb out of oven and carve it. You'll find it's very easy to carve; very very tender. Serve with roasted or boiled spuds and garden peas (cooked). Drizzle the sauce over everything.

2) Ok, so you've decided to do gravy, no worries. Gravy doesn't take long at all, so the lamb can set on you cutting board to rest for 5 mins while you make the gravy. It's easy: mix a tbsp or two of cornstarch (it's called corn flour down here) in some cold water. Bring the pan juices to a boil, turn the heat off, and whisk while pouring in the dissolved cornstarch. See? EASY!

Carve up the lamb, serve with spuds and peas; don't forget to put lashings of gravy on everything!


Hmmmmmm, what to do with the bone and all the offcuts... Well, there'll be some meat, gristle, cartilege etc hanging on it. Chuck it all in a big pot with lots of water and boil the heck out of it for a few hours! All the tasty marrow and great flavourings will be added to that water! TaDa: instant soup stock! Just make sure you strain it before storing it. You'll also want to defat the stock. I know of several ways to do that so just ask if you are interested, no worries.

Worcestershire Sauce

Oh boy am I gonna open a big ole can o' worms with this one! To begin with... just how the hell is "worcestershire" pronounced? Fortunately, I am related to some folks from that part of the world by virtue (HA!) of marriage. So I have learned a wee thing or two about how I'm supposed to pronounce words from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, London, and many of the surrounding shires.

Ahem. Here's the fo-nah-teek way to pronounce it (according to a well place source whom I sleep with):  Worchestershire is pronounced   wuss-tu-shuh   

I'm not kidding! Even though the word has 3 r's, not a one of them is pronounced! The first part "worches" is "wuss", then the "ter" is "tu", and "shire" is "shuh". See, you learn something new every day by reading my useless tidbits. Oh yeah, an aussie would pronounce it "wuss-ta-shah".

Back to the sauce...

About a year ago or more, I needed some wusstushuh sauce for making something (it was even going to be edible). However, I was out of the sauce with the exception of a tiny bit of really cheap gunky wusstushuh. "Well," thought I, "I certainly can't use that crappy sauce for this! It'd be ruined!"

What to do... hmmmm, gotta think... I know! I'll make my own.

Fortunately there's this really cool thing y'all may have heard about; it's called The Internet. Just imagine, any info you want about anything or anybody is yours for the pilfering right at your fingertips without ever having to get your lazy ass out of the chair! Wow! Someone shoulda invented this a lot sooner... heck, there'd be even more couch potatoes!

Whoops, back to the recipe.

Now, I *know* that a lot of wusstushuh sauce recipes say you gotta have tamarind paste. Mine doesn't. Why? Cus the idea was to make it with only items that were in the pantry at the time. Going out and buying something would be cheating cus I could just grab a bottle of Lea & Perrins and be done.

After extensive reading and research on this great thingy called The Internet, I had compiled my own list of ingredients (all of which I had on hand, thank you) and a vague idea of what to do.

Soooo, here ya go: homemade wusstushuh sauce! I'm sure you will all have the ingredients in your kitchen pantry :)


Worcestershire sauce

What you need:

1 chopped tomato(e)
1 small chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
3 anchovy fillets, minced
1 small handfull of raisins
1/3 cup treacle OR molasses
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1 cup water
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp raw sugar
2/3 cup beer (a dark lager works well)


Whew! That's quite the list, eh?



What you do:

Chuck it all in a pot, bring it to a boil (I'd suggest using some kind of heating device under the pot to do this) and then let it simmer for 1 hour (keep it covered, very important so you don't lose liquid). Let it cool.

Pour the cooled semi-lumpy stuff into a blender and then blenderize it till there ain't no lumps left. Should only take a minute or two.

Strain the liquid, then bottle the liquid in a jar, seal it, let it sit overnight in the fridge, and then
use it! See, simple! Easy!

You'll also note that this tastes much better than anything you'll buy off the shelf; trust me on that!

Oh, for the jarring part: just pour boiling water into the glass jar (toss the lid into the pot of boiling water for a moment too), then empty the jar and let it cool for a few. That's it, easy.

Saucy!

Every once in a while I go off on a complete tangent to what I was thinking of. Actually, it happens pretty darned often. So much so that the clan household is used to it by now. Maybe perhaps y'all are? If not, too bad!

Did you know I make my own sauces? Well, now you do.

OT: Isn't the german language great? Depending on which form of 'you' is used they can be taking about a singular you, or a collective you. Bummer that english don't have that... guess that's why I use y'all a lot, eh?

See??!!?? I warned "you".

Back to sauces...

I just discovered a great way to make wasabi mayonnaise!

A couple of decades ago (off on one of my tangents) I was talking to a friend (drinking buddy) about making spicy tartar sauce from scratch. She said it's easier than that; just chuck in however much chili powder you want to regular tartar sauce and mix it up. Please note, many of my drinking buds were female :)

So before any of "you" say to just take some mayo and stir in some wasabi paste, let me just say that I've thought of and tried that. The following is much better and only takes a min or two.


Wasabi Mayo


What you need:

2 egg yolks (3 if you've got tiny chooks)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp wasabi paste (or more if you'd like)
1/2 cup olive oil (I use extra virgin, fresh, cold-pressed cus I'm snooty)


What you do:

If your second food processor is really small, then use that. Don't try it in a regular sized one, there just ain't enough to get to set right. If you don't have a small food processor, then just use one of them handheld electric mixer thingy-ma-bobs. Heck, it's easier to clean too.

Anyways... put the first 3 ingredients (that's a fancy chef word meaning stuff you add to make something taste good) in your small food processor and process for 30 seconds or so till it's kinda creamy. Then pour in the olive oil in a thin stream while the blade is running. GAH! Why does everyone use that fraze "while the blade is running" when talking about adding liquids (or some solids) to a food processor???? Don't ya think we know by now? How can a blade "run" anyway? Doesn't it spin? Whoops, there I am on my soapbox again...

Anyways, pour in the olive oil into the food processor bowl while the motor on the food processor is running so that the blades are spinning. Process for about a minute till it's smooth and creamy.

This goes very well spread on bread. It's great for sandwiches. If you have a stuffy nose, then just add more wasabi, but I don't recommend snorting it!

This is good, really.

Onion Rings

I was thinking about starting a series of posts about pickling and drying, but I first decided to talk about one of THE BEST deep fried foods ever: The humble onion ring. I was reminded about onion rings not only from last weeks' post about deep frying, but from the death of a canoe story on my other blog.

There was, and I really hope it's still there, a restaurant in Los Anchorage called The Arctic RoadRunner.  They made great cheeseburgers and the worlds best onion rings.

I hope they are still there...

Anyways, I make my own onion rings. You can use batter if you'd like, but it doesn't stick to the rings very well and the oil gets in. So use breading! Many folks use buttermilk before dredging in the breading mix.



But there's a better way



Dingo Dave's Onion Rings:

What U Knead:

3 good sized onions (what? aren't you having company to enjoy these?)
2 cups flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp of cayenne powder (or less or more, your choice)
1 tsp mild paprika

and the secret... 2 cups of plain yog(h)urt

Don't worry if you don't like yoghurt, you won't even notice it's there. But it makes the breading stick GREAT and absolutely no oil gets into your onion rings.


What u due:

I think you can figure this out, but I'll go through it anyways. Slice the onions into rings (see, I told you you coulda figured it out). Mix all the dry ingredients. Give the yog(h)urt a good stir so it's not lumpy. Drag the rings through the yog(h)urt and then dredge in the flour mix. Notice how the breading REALLY stays on?

Deep fry in hot oil for 2 to 3 mins only, won't take long at all.

Now here's the really easy part: EAT THEM! Oh, they are best had with a light, hoppy, lager on a hot day.

enjoy


Oh wait, I just gotta tell you about my lunch today. Here's what I had:

sushi
cocktail prawns (shrimp)
dolmades
chilli marinated New Zealand Green-Lipped Mussels
fried squid rings
battered fish
veggie egg rolls (healthy!)
sliced roast beef w/horseradish (not sauce, pure horseradish)
honey chicken
sweet and sour pork

and for dessert:
chocolate truffles
chocolate mousse
banana cake
profiterolles

I then took a two hour nap, and am NOT planning on having any dinner tonight.

Deep Frying Fool

Yes, I know it's bad for you... but gosh darn it: it tastes GOOD!

Deep fried goodness! Oh, come on now, doesn't everything taste better when tossed in hot oil with or without some type of coating? Hell, I've even deep fried sushi --TRUE (personally, I like it better raw and yes, I make damned good sushi).

Today though, you get a wonderful batter that'll fry a variety of things. I was cleaning out the fridge the other day, and had a little of this and a little of that. I thought for lunch I should deep fry the bits and see which ones come out best --for some reason, no one else in the clan house was as excited about this lunch as I was... hmmmmm...

Anyways, I decided that a good, thick, egg batter would be best. Before I give you the batter recipe, let me list the things I was deep fryin':

pickled mussels
camenbert cheese
metwurst
brie cheese
crab meat
feta cheese
blood sausage (black pudding)
bleu cheese


Ahem, yes, I like to eat... As you can tell, I needed a versatile batter (definitely not breading). It turns out, the feta was BEST, followed very closely by everything else. Hey, I am a deep frying King --been doing it a while.

The batter:

half flour/half polenta (corn meal will do) --about 3/4 cup of each
salt
ground white pepper
milk powder (a tbsp or two)
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tsp powdered coriander
1 tsp powdered cumin
2 eggs
enough water to make a good, thick batter.

Mix it all together, then use.

Oh, if you use a good, wide wok, then you only need an inch of oil. I use olive oil for everything except deep frying, for that I use sunflower oil.

As I said, the deep fried feta was great, but so was everything else (the mussels were a close second).

Hmmmm, maybe I should tell you how to make deep fried, soft boiled eggs sometime (it's a vietnamese thing).