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Heart and Soul

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kylie-kwong

 

Kylie Kwong is an amazing chef, and I love her cookbooks. I haven’t even cooked a lot of her recipes, simply because they usually require a bit more planning than I put in for dinner. Chinese cooking, both traditional but with all kinds of amazing twists.

Here’s what I love from this book –

Crispy-skin duck with blood plum sauce

Stir-fried mussels in oyster sauce

Italian mushroom ragout

Moroccan-style meatballs with sour cherry and cream sauce

‘Radical’ roast chicken 

Roast duck with figs, shitake mushrooms and lime

Mussels in white wine, orange and saffron

Braised chicken with vibrant flavours – veg, ginger, fish sauce, dates, red wine, etc.

“Heart and Soul“. 203 pages. Recipes with fish, prawns, duck, chicken, beef, quail, squid, pigeon, pork, offal. Sensational flavours.

 

Tuna, Vegetable, Herb and Feta Pasta

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tuna-pasta

This is pretty simple. Saute a small chopped onion in some olive oil.

Add 1/2 cup white wine, a 200g cherry tomatoes, a handful of basil leaves and 1 tbsp green peppercorns. Simmer until for 3-4 minutes, then add other chopped vegetables. (I used kale and yellow squash from our garden). Continue to simmer until the liquid has reduced by half.

Add 1 medium can of tuna and 1 tbsp small capers, black pepper and salt, 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped.

Serve with pasta and crumbled feta and some fresh basil leaves on top.

 

 

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Bacon and Cheese Sauce

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pumpkin-gnocchi

Pumpkin Gnocchi with Bacon and Cheese Sauce
 
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Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: European
Ingredients
  • 500 g Pumpkin (Peeled and chopped)
  • ¾ cup "00" Plain flour (Sifted)
  • 1 Egg yolk
  • 1 cup Parmesan cheese (Grated)
  • Black pepper
  • 1 small Brown onion (Peeled and diced)
  • ⅔ cup White wine
  • 1-15 Black peppercorns (Whole)
  • 300 ml Cream
  • 1 handful Sage leaves
  • ½ cup Butter
  • 4 Bacon rashers (Chopped roughly)
  • ⅓ cup Blue cheese (Crumbled)
  • ⅓ cup Gouda cheese (Grated)
Instructions
  1. Bake pumpkin in oven until tender. Put through a potato ricer or sieve while still warm. Fry pumpkin in 2 tbsp butter in a pan on low heat until pumpkin has dried out a bit and thickened. Remove from heat and gently fold through flour, egg, ½ cup of parmesan cheese and some black pepper. The mixture should be soft. Gently roll into long tubes bout 2 cm wide. Cut at about 2 cm intervals. Roll into balls and indent with a fork or with a gnocchi roller (cost about $4 at specialty kitchen shops). Place into fridge.
  2. Saute the chopped bacon until cooked and put aside until needed.
  3. Saute onion in a little butter with a little olive oil for 5-7 mins on low heat. Add white wine and peppercorns, increase heat and simmer until quantity reduces by half. Strain liquid and return to pan. Add cream, half of the sage leaves. ¾ of the cooked bacon and cheeses. Warm until cheese melts. If necessary, thicken with a whisked egg yolk or a tsp of cornflour mixed with a little water.
  4. Place gnocchi into a pot of boiling water. The gnocchi is cooked when it rises to the surface. It should only take a few minutes.
  5. Heat the remaining butter in a small pan until simmering. Add remaining sage leaves until they go crisp. Remove from pan immediately. Place gnocchi on plate. Cover with cream and bacon mixture. Top with remaining bacon and burnt sage leaves and parmesan cheese. Drizzle with a little of the sage butter and add some freshly cracked black pepper.

Stir-Fried Mussels

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mussels

Here’s an excellent Kylie Kwong recipe from “Heart and Soul” that I’ve adapted slightly due to allergies in our family.

Stir-Fried Mussels
 
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Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Asian
Ingredients
  • 30-40 Mussels
  • ½ Red Capsicum (chopped)
  • 5 Spring onions (chopped)
  • 3 cm Ginger (sliced thinly)
  • 3 Garlic cloves (crushed)
  • ½ Long red chilli (sliced)
  • ½ Red onion (cut into thin wedges)
  • 3 tbsp Shao Xing Rice Wine
  • 2 tsp White sugar
  • 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
  • ½ tsp Sesame Oil
  • ⅓ cup Chicken Stock
  • 2 tsp Chinese black vinegar
  • handful Coriander (chopped)
Instructions
  1. Scrub mussels. Remove their beards. Rinse and drain. Cook in a wok with 1½ cups water, covered, until the shells open. This will only take a few minutes. Immediately remove mussels from wok with a slotted spoon. Throw away any that haven't opened. Drain and clean wok.
  2. Heat 2-3 tbsp oil in wok and stir fry spring onion, ginger slivers, garlic, sliced chillies, onion and capsicum for 3 minutes. Add mussels and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add shao xing wine, sugar, oyster sauce. sesame oil and chicken stock. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Then add vinegar and coriander and serve.