Craig Cooks

everyday experiments with food

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Asian Tea-Smoked Trout Salad

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This dish is a winner. I smoked the rainbow trout with equal quantities of brown sugar, jasmine rice and black tea. Next time I’ll use jasmine tea.

Tea-smoked rainbow trout
Green mango
Tomato
Pomelo
Garden leaves (purple kale, chard, nasturtium, eschallot)
Garden herbs (vietnamese mint, thai basil-mint, coriander).

Dressing from the brilliant Spirit House cookbook.

30 ml fish sauce
4 tsp palm sugar
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp minced chilli (recipe has 1 tbsp chilli jam)
3 tbsp coconut cream

I had previously tried a slightly different version, riffing off a recipe in the same cookbook with the same dressing.

Tea-smoked rainbow trout with pomelo, green papaya, cherry tomatoes, fried garlic and shallot slices, mint, coriander, toasted coconut, crushed peanut. Sounded like a crazy combination but worked pretty well.

BTW you can find some free Thai recipes from The Spirit House Restaurant here.

Vegetarian Pizzas

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I’m going to catch up on some things I should have posted  while ago, and hopefully get back on track posting more often.

This pizza has
tomato paste
mozzarella,
roasted cherry tomatoes
mushrooms
feta

After it was cooked I added
charred leeks
shredded red witlof
haloumi

It was excellent.

The other one, not photographed had
garlic oil
mozzarella
zucchini
baked carrot
deep-fried cauliflower crumbs
harissa spice mix
diced chilli
feta
dollops of yoghurt
(add chicken if you want non-vegetarian)

Also worked very well.

Vegan Canapés

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canapes

Here’s a simple recipe that I made up for a recent party.

Slice some potato thinly (ideally using a mandoline). Choose potatoes that are circular in shape. Wash but don’t peel them. I used Desiree potatoes.

Place the potato slices in a bowl of clean water. Swirl them gently to separate them, then leave for 15 mins to reduce the starch.

Dry the potato slices with paper towels. Place the slices on baking paper on a baking tray.

Place a thin slice of leek on each potato chip and a small cauliflower floret on top of the leek.

Drizzle well with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with sea salt flakes.

Bake at 200 C for 20-25 mins until the chips are cooked and cauliflower browned. You’ll need to watch it carefully towards the end to avoid the chips getting burnt.

These just get gobbled up. I’ll add a photo of the cooked version next time I make some.

Coconut Lime Friand & Passionfruit Semi-Freddo

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dessert-3

Last night’s dessert.

Passionfruit semi-freddo from a Masterchef contestant – recipe here. (Yes the semifreddo is melting in the photo!)

Lime and Coconut Friand – recipe here. I used coconut flour instead of plain flour, and as you will see there wasn’t any icing on the outside.

The mandarin pieces were dipped in a mandarin syrup which was also poured over the friand, which had lime zest on top. Then fresh passionfruit, toasted coconut flakes and drizzled chocolate sauce.

Passionfruit, coconut and citrus thing worked really well. This recipe needs a little tweaking but it’s fine.