admin - Craig Cooks

Coconut Lime Friand & Passionfruit Semi-Freddo

July 4, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

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.

Pineapple-Pepper Pork

June 23, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Here’s a pretty tasty dish that I concocted the other night.

Roast rack of pork.
Carrot mash cooked in orange juice with ginger slices (ginger removed before mashing)
Red capsicum essence
Sliced fresh Jerusalem artichokes
Salsa of fried fresh pineapple, diced chilli with a little lime juice
Kecap manis drizzled on top
Fresh coriander leaves

Pork, Duck & Beetroot Sausages

June 21, 2016 by admin 2 Comments

Yesterday I made up a new sausage recipe. After tasting them I’m going to tweak the recipe for next time, so here is my ‘next time’ recipe.

2kg pork shoulder and 4 duck breasts with skin, minced.
6 tbsp duck fat
1 head garlic confit, chopped (slow cooked in oil at 100-120C for about an hour)
1 tbsp fennel seeds, lightly toasted and ground
6-8 star anise, ground finely
Zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 1 orange
4 tbsp beetroot powder or 1 large beetroot, roasted and blitzed in a food processor.
4 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 cup pistachios, chopped finely (optional)

I found beetroot powder at Gaganis food warehouse in Adelaide and it is amazing stuff.

You could certainly increase the proportion of duck but that also puts up the cost considerably. The prototype had only two duck breasts.

Tonight I’m serving them up with a sweet potato-carrot-honey mash, sauted leeks, and parsnip slivers baked with cherry tomatoes and some yoghurt on the side.

BBQ Kangaroo

January 31, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

A online cooking group was having a BBQ challenge this weekend, so I’ve made this kangaroo recipe for the second time, with a slight variation.

The original recipe comes from the Kangaroo Industry Association’s website. They have a recipe page which includes a downloadable recipe book with remarkable recipes from Australia’s top chefs. This is from one of the easier recipes by Mark Bayliss from Unilever Food Solutions.

The kangaroo fillets are marinated in a mixture of equal quantities of salt and brown sugar for 2-3 hours. This dries out the outside but the inside remains moist.

Meanwhile, marinate hickory chips in red wine.

The relish originally featured figs, but we had fresh nectarines so I simply replaced the fruit, and made 2/3 of the recipe quantity, as below.

300g nectarines, stoned and chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
100g caster sugar
60ml white wine vinegar
1/2 red onion, diced finely
1 tbsp ground coriander
3 star anise

Bring all of the above to the boil in a saucepan and simmer for 1/2 hour.

Smoke kangaroo on your BBQ. The method will depend on your kind of BBQ. I put coals on one side of our Weber with the smoking box on top of the coals, and the roo on the other side away from the fire. I covered the Weber and left the roo for about 40 minutes, then finished it off directly over the coals for about 3 minutes each side.

The kangaroo should be a bit crispy on the outside and tender in the middle.

Salad

Diced tomato
Orange segments
Red onion, thinly sliced
Pomegranate seeds
Toasted cumin seeds
Snow pea tendrils

I love this way of cooking kangaroo. It looks and tastes wonderful.