admin – Craig Cooks

Seven Spice Chicken with Flatbread

July 8, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s my middle eastern chicken with flatbread. I’m on the hunt for good but simple flatbread recipes, and this recipe from Gourmet Traveller did the trick. I did however add twice as much water, and then had to add more flour and yoghurt to compensate! Nevertheless, I’m standing by the recipe!

The chicken recipe came from The Lebanese Kitchen by Salma Hage and is for Chicken Sharwama.

Cut chicken breast into strips and soak overnight in a mixture of 3 tbsp malt vinegar, juice of 1/2 lemon (maybe 2 tsp?) and 3 tbsp water.

The next day toss it in Lebanese seven spice seasoning, add some salt and pepper. You can buy the seasoning or make it yourself. Hage’s spice mix is as follows:

5 tbsp ground allspice
3 1/2 tbsp pepper
3 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
5 tbsp ground cloves
4tbsp ground nutmeg
4 tbsp ground fenugreek (coriander is an alternative)
4 tbsp ground ginger

The recipe says to bake the chicken strips at 200C for 30 minutes. I thought that this would dry them out and it did – I pulled them out of the oven early. Next time I’d just sear them in a pan.

The chicken is served on some baked veg with home-made baba ganoush and saffron-cumin rice cooked in chicken stock.

Pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, some chard from our garden, a slice of lemon and yoghurt. A great combination.

Chinese Braised Duck

July 8, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

Last night I made a slight variation on this recipe from Taste. The sauce was good, and more importantly the duck cooking method worked really well.

The duck marylands were cooked in a pan, skin side down, on low heat for 15 mins, then skin side up for 5 mins.

Then they were covered in marinade (see below) and cooked, covered, in the oven at 180C for 45 mins.

Then the duck was taken out of the pan and put in a clean tray and cooked at 220C for 10 mins. While the skin did not crisp up, the duck itself was soft.

The recipe is for 4 marylands. I cooked two but made a full quantity of the marinade.

The marinade consists of the following:

3 garlic cloves, sliced
3 cm root ginger, julienned
2 star anise
1/2 cup Shaoxing rice wine
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

Actually the sauce could do with a hit of chilli.

Saute the garlic and ginger in a pan, then add the other ingredients. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the marinade to the duck in the cooking pan, but don’t fully submerge the skin. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of five spice powder onto the duck skin (or 1 tsp if 4 pieces of duck).

When the duck is in the over an 220C, strain the marinade, skim off the fat, and reduce on the stove for 10 mins. Add some of the sauce to the dish before serving.

The recipe included potato, but I substituted fennel, carrot and broccolini. Julienned spring onion and chilli on top.

Muscat Braised Goat

June 28, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

It all started with Swedes. Not Abba. Tonight’s dinner is based on a James Kidman recipe from his wonderful book Renaissance. It’s out of print. I bought a kilo of goat offcuts for $10 reduced from $20. I used to buy half a goat at the Adelaide Markets for $9 a kilo. Then the price jumped to $22! This was just offcuts, but I love goat. And it is lean and it is the most consumed meat in the world, apparently.

James’ recipe seems to be missing some ingredients, as you’ll see from my description below.

He had a shoulder of goat. I had a kilo of goat bits. My recipe is a bit of him and a bit of me.

You’ll need
Goat – you decide how much
1.5 – 2 litres chicken stock – heated (recipe said 3 litres for shoulder)
1 carrot, diced
1/2 leek, diced (recipe says 1)
1 medium brown onion, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
200ml muscat (the recipe said 300ml. I had no muscat so I used 200ml good sherry and 100 ml good tawny port. It really needed muscat. Adjust the overall amount to suit the meat.)
50g dried porcini mishrooms (we were out of porcinis! So I used several sliced swiss browns and a tsp of porcini powder)
olive oil

See about the veg below….

Pork with Apple Parsnip Puree

June 19, 2021 by admin Leave a Comment

We made panko-crumbed pork loin with crispy parsnip skins. baked fennel, an apple-parsnip puree and poached leek with a mustard vinagrette. It was pretty good and I’m posting a couple of elements here so as not to lose them.

The puree recipe came from F00d52 with slight amendment. It’s a great site, so please go and check it out. You’ll see that the recipe has optional whisky and pecans.

With only two us, I halved the recipe. Here’s what I did.

Apple and Parsnip Puree

2 large or 4 medium parsnips – about 450 gms.
Peel the parsnips. Cut into quarters and core them. Cut into 2 cm lengths and cubes.

1/2 large or 1 small onion cut into 2cm cubes.

1 to 1.5 granny smith apples, peeled cored and cut into 2cm cubes (I used one and thought it needed more apple).

Place the parsnip, onion and apple on baking paper in a baking tray and mix with 1 tbsp olive oil and a little sea salt and black pepper.

Bake at 190C for 15 mins, then use a spatula to turn the food in the pan. Cook for another 10 – 15 mins until it is browning.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, warm 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup cream with 1 tsp butter and 1 tbsp honey.

When the fruit and veg are cooked, place in a food processor. Add 1/2 of the milk mixture and process, then gradually add more until the mixture is creamy.

Our puree tasted quite nutty, but I wanted to taste more apple.

Leeks with Mustard Vinaigrette

The leek was simmered in water for 20 mins and then cut in half. I forgot to leave the base on the leek so the halves fell apart.

The vinaigrette is simple:

1 tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup olive oil – the better quality oil, the better
a pinch of sugar

Whisk the above and then stir in 1 eschalot, finely minced (I used a bit of red onion instead)

Leek recipe from goodfood.com.au