Sushi for the Kikoklu

It was to be a our Autumn cookery club meeting. It was this year at our dear friend Kalles and as the one hosting the venue he would be making the main course.
Kalle had turned his artistic side (he does have more than one) into transforming "the" wall papering table into an Autumn field full with russet, gold and yellow hues.

So with prior arrangement it was to be:

Carolyn's pre-prandial drinks and tab-nabs

Blue diamond cocktail

Saft einer halben Limette - Juice of half a lemon

2 cl Blue Curacao - 2cl Blue Curacao

Sekt, gut gekühlt zum Auffüllen - Fill with chilled sparling wine (Sekt)

Obst als Deko am Glasrand - Decorate with a bit of fruit on the glass rim

And the tapanade, cream cheese amuse bouch

Linda was next and she had made a savoury souffle with an anchony sauce.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheese_and_spinach_94388
This was a Chris Evens recipe from the BBC food website

Then came Marianne with her duo of soups the paprika basil along side a pumpkin and orange one. Served with Kalles fresh baked bread.

Next came mine, I had decided to do the fish course and so I went East (though all of the ingredients came from the West). It was to be Sushi: Marianne and Martin had taught in Japan for a few years so this was not alien to them, the others coming from the Baltic or Ireland just loved fish.

I had made a wide variety of Sushi served with a spiced sprout and fish tartare salad.

California roll - filled with tartare of tuna and halibut rolled in flyingfish roe (Maguro-ohyō Uta Maki)

Thick roll - filled with salmon, avocado and cucumber. (Sake Futo Tekamaki)

Thick roll - filled with tuna, avocado and cucumber (Maguro Futo Tekamaki)

Crab and trout caviar ships (kani Gunkanmaki-Zushi)

Trout Caviar and prawn ships (ikura -ebi Gunkanmaki-Zushi)

Laquered smoked eel (unagi donburi-Zushi)

Fresh water prawns sushi (Ebizushi)

First I made the Sushi rice, I have of late bought myself a rice cooker, this takes all of the hit and miss out of rice coking but better, you don't have to keep an eye on it at all.

Wash the rice until the water runs clear

The wooden cooling bowl(Hangiri)

Make the sushi addition (Sushi-zu)
40ml of rice wine, 2 table spoons of sugar and 1/2 a tea spoon of salt, heat until all is disolved

adding the sushi-zu to the rice

Fold the sushi-zu into the rice and cool.

The rice requires cooling quite quickly, originally with a hand fan and now-a-days with an electric one,but having neither, I mixed, and covered with a clean tea towel turned back about 1/4 and put out on the balcony to cool.

While the rice was cooling I filleted, sliced and prepared the rest of the ingredients

The smoked eel

skinning the eel

skinning the salmon on the right the tuna

slicing the avocado

deseeding the cucumber

I first made the Calafornia roll

rice on top of kitchen foil

lay a nori sheet on top and a smear of wasabi in the middle

add the tuna and halibut tartare in the middle

rolling the whole lot

The finished roll wrap tightly and store until needed and then rolled in flyingfish roe

Making the maki came next.

I next made the laquering sauce for the eel sushi, this was made out of oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar heated together until it became thick and treacle like. The sushi rice was formed in the palm of the hand and laid on a strip of Nori, the eel was then laquered and the nori stips over lapped.

Below are:

California roll - filled with tartare of tuna and halibut rolled in flying fish roe (Maguro-ohyō Uta Maki)

Thick roll - filled with salmon, avocado and cucumber. (Sake Futo Tekamaki)

Trout Caviar ships

The crab and fresh water prawn ships (ikura -ebi Gunkanmaki-Zushi) at the front the spicy sprout salad and the gari (pickled ginger)

The ships (Gunkanmaki-Zushi) are made by forming a strip of nori into a cylinder, sticking the edges with a dab of water, roll some rice into a ball and squash it down into the base of the cylinder, then top it with the filling.

The laquered eel and fresh water prawn sushi.

I think that everyone enjoyed the sushi and I shall be doing it again, may be to an Far Easten theme!

After the fish course came the mains, this was Kalles Swedish speciality, spiced corn fed chicken cooked over a bed of root vegetables, with his fantastic home made bread.

beetroot, onions, carrots, garlic, parsnip

And the final was Martins dessert (this could be called the "Initialed Course")

Zitronensahnepudding auf Himbeerspiegel (von Martin)

1 Becher Schlagsahne mit

Vanillezucker und wenig Zucker ziemlich steif schlagen

500 g Magerquark dazugeben und kräftig weiterschlagen

Saft von zwei Biozitronen und feinen Abrieb der Zitronenschalen dazu geben

Mit Zucker abschmecken

2 Tütchen weiße Gelatine nach Vorschrift 10 Minuten mit etwas kaltem Wasser in einem Topf einweichen dann erhitzen, anschließend unter die Masse rühren

Alles noch einmal schön aufschlagen

Gläser oder Tassen mit kaltem Wasser ausspülen und die Masse gleichmäßig hineingeben und verteilen (mind. 5 Stunden im Kühlschrank anziehen lassen).



Himbeerpürree:

1 Paket tiefgefrorenen Himbeeren (ca. 200 g, keine Kilotüte) auftauen lassen, mit einem Pürierstab und Puderzucker pürieren. Masse durch ein feines Sieb streichen und die Kerne entfernen.

Das Pürree als Spiegel auf die Teller gießen.



Zum Servieren:

Die Puddingformen kurz in heißes Wasser stellen, ggf. ein Messer in das heiße Wasser tauchen und den Pudding damit leicht vom Rand lösen. Pudding auf einem Teller mit dem Himbeerspiegel stürzen. Wenn die Puddingformen aus dünnem Glas sind genügen meist 5-7 Sekunden im heißen Wasserbad, um den Pudding stürzen zu können. Bei Gefäßen mit dickerem Rand kann es etwas länger dauern.

Verzieren mit Abrieb von Bio Orangenschale und/oder Limettenschale.

Alternativ zum Himbeerspiegel kann man das Pürree auch in eine Plastikflasche für Dekozwecke (mit engem Ausgang) füllen, um damit Muster auf dem Pudding und dem Unterteller malen.


Martins Lemon cream pudding on a raspberry coolie

1 pot of whipping cream (250ml)

1 pkt of vanille sugar

500g low fat quark

2 lemons Juice and zest

sugar to taste

2 pkts of white gelatine ( follow direction on the packet, but it will be to add to a small amount of water and allow to swell for about 10 minutes, then disolve over a low heat.

Add the vanille sugar and a small amount of castor sugar to the whipping cream and beat until quite stiff, add the quark and beat quite hard ( at this point can I say any one under the age of 18, look away).

Add the lemon juice and the zest and mix in, adjust the taste with sugar (or sweetener in my case? Martin you fed me SUGAR)

Add the gelatine and give it all another thrashing or do I mean beating or should that be a whipping, I am feeling quite faint I think that I will have to lie down

Pour into 6 glasses that have been swilled (such a nice term is that) out with cold water. Bump the glass on the work surface to level the tops and release any trapped air. Pop into the frdge for 5 hours.

Raspberry coolie

200g packet of  frozen raspberries (if in season use fresh), purier in a mixer or as Martin says with mixing stick add a bit of icing sugar to taste, push this through a fine seive to remove the seeds (they get stuck under false teeth and there is nothing worse than our fair ladies poking around in their mouth at the dinner table).

To serve pour the coolie onto the serving plate to form a mirror, warm the glass in hot water for 5-7 seconds (was Marianne standing with a stop watch?) and carefully slide the pudding out of the glass and onto the plate on top of the raspberry coolie. ( Martin has also informed you that the length of time the pudding takes to release itself from the glass in exponentially proportionate to the thick ness of the glass, well that is what he meant)

You can now decorate with Orange and/or lime peal, cut with a microplaner or one of those chefy things that cuts fine strips (ahem I have a one).

As an alternative to the coolie mirror, you can pour it into one of those cheffy plastic bottles with a long nozzel and write peoples initials on the top ( as you can seeMartin has a one of these), did I tell you Martin has been to art evening classes to learn all about this??? hee-hee.

Very nice Martin

cheers my dears

Moules and a red Thai curry

October 22nd-23rd

I was spending a weekend in Rheda as it was our 4 weekly kegelabend. I was up very early on Saturday morning just so that I could get out and about looking at the wildlife and do my shopping before the rush.
I hadn’t thought about what I was going to eat over the weekend I decided to see what was on the market.

I noticed some nice Schnitzelfleish by my butchers stall, so I decided to do a red Thai pork curry for Sunday lunch and as the fish stall had some nice looking Mussels it was to be Moules Marinier for Saturday.



So for the Moules (1 portion +)

2 kg mussels (pre cleaned as it saves a lot of work)

1 carrot diced

White of a leek sliced

A Piece of celeriac diced

3 shallots diced

2 table spoons of olive oil

Wine glass of white wine

Slug of Cinzano bianco (or similar vermouth)

1 large tomato diced

300 ml of vegetable stock

1 dessert spoon of crème double

Soften the vegetables in the oil (I like mine still with a bite of bite, chefs call this, a la dente)

add the washed and cleaned mussels, add the wine and bring to the boil and add the tomatoes, put the lid on and shake the pan to make sure all of the mussels get the liquor over them.

When they are open they are ready (do not over cook them, please),  add the stock and Cinzano and crème double, bring to the boil and quickly serve.

Serve with fresh baguette.

This is one of the quickest cooked meals on the planet, I do love my moules, I gave the frites a miss this time.


I had some mussels left over and quite a bit of sauce, I removed the mussels from their shells, put the sauce etc into a container and blitzed into a soup, adding the mussel meat, this went into a container for Monday’s lunch.

Thai red pork curry


100 g of pork mince

200 g of lean sliced pork (I used Schnitzelfleisch) sliced

2 dessert spoons of neutral oil (corn oil)

1 dessert spoon of light soy sauce (Japanese)

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1 teaspoon Fennel seeds

1 teaspoon of Garam Marsala

2 carrots sliced into matchsticks

2.5 cm piece of ginger cut into small dice

A slice of celeriac cut into small dice

The white of leek. Sliced length ways into matchsticks

2 shallots thinly sliced

3 spring onions sliced

3 red Chillies, seeds and pith removed and sliced

Small handful of chopped coriander

1 large tomato diced

1 piece of cauliflower diced (I like this added as it gives a nice crunch)

3 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped

1 stalk of lemon grass crushed and finely sliced

100 g of shitake mushrooms sliced

200 ml of coconut cream

Dark Soy sauce to taste

100 g of soya bean sprouts

3 pieces of lemon peel shredded (or a tea spoon of grated lemon peel)

2  heaped tea spoons of my home made red Thai paste (see my Tom yam recipe)



Back row: minced pork,  marinating pork strips, coconut cream, tomatoes, curry paste.
Top Middle: Oil, cauliflower,carrots,garlic, shallots, bean sprouts
Lower middle: chilli, celeriac, ginger,leek, lemon zest, lemon grass
Front row: heavy dark soy sauce, spring onions, shitake mushrooms, coriander




Method
Marinate the pork with the fennel, cumin and Garam Marsala along with some soy sauce and oil for about 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the garlic, shallots and ginger, add the marinated pork over a high heat, browning it quickly, add the pork mince and also fry quickly.

Remove and set to one side. Now add the curry paste and fry (you will in all probability not need any more oil).

Add the rest of the vegetables and lemon grass etc and fry quickly,

add the shitake mushrooms and Chillies,

add the pork, then the bean sprouts and tomatoes, finally pour in the coconut cream, stir, adjust the seasoning (I only use soy for the saltiness but a little pepper may be to your taste).

Serve straight away with fresh boiled rice, another quick and tasty meal, I think the preparation takes longer than the cooking.

Tom Yam (or Yum) Gai - Thai spicy (very) chicken and prawn soup

I have made lots of this type of soup from various recipes over the years (I think the best one was from a fellow foodie on the BBC food board called Josh, he traveled a lot in SE Asia and collected a lot of Asian Recipes, his was really authentic.

I have adapted parts from various recipes so I don't know how near a real one it is?

So I started by making a hearty chicken broth, first the base stock was made from:

Stock ingredients

1000g of chicken remains, these are called Hühnerklein in Germany; these are the parts that are left after the chicken farmer has removed the breasts, thighs and wings. I would have got fresh from the market, but it was Tuesday and no market on, this meant frozen !!

1 handful of freeze dried vegetables (Suppengemuse)
1dessert spoon of pepper corns (mixed)
1 piece of mace
1 star aniseed
6 cloves
3 dried bay leaves
a piece of Cinnamon bark

1 piece of ginger (about 1 inch sliced but not peeled)
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 teaspoons of Marigold vegetable stock (or a jar or 2 of pre-cooked hühnerbrühe)
The dark green from a bunch of spring onions (the light green and whites go into the finished soup)

Put the lot into a pressure cooker and pour on enough boiling water to cover, lid on, put on high until it comes up to pressure and then reduce for 1 hour.

Strain through a sieve. This is one very nice Chicken stock and with very little adjustment can be used as the base for many soups, stews, curries and fricassee (it also freezes very well and lends itself to be concentrated) or even freeze into portions (cup size for drinking in winter or ice cube size in freezer bags).

To make the chicken soup

1.5kg boiling fowl (or old cockerel if you can get a one)

Boil the  fowl in the stock, this can be done at a rolling boil skimming the scum from the top, or as I did in the pressure cooker.

When done remove the hen from the liquid, this is one of the best chicken stocks that you will have ever tasted. When cool strip the meat from the hen, discarding all of the skin (we are being healthy), the bones and nasty bits of gristle and feathers.

Strain once again through a fine seive. I got about 3 ltrs of fantastic Chicken soup


Making the Tom Yam paste

This makes a 250ml glass jar
2 stalks of lemon grass, outer hard skin removed, bashed and chopped
2 red chillies deseeded & sliced, (take your pick hot, very hot or seriously mind blowing)
2 Tspns of galangal paste (I couldn't get any fresh)
2 Tspns of coriander paste
3 cloves of garlic
1 shallot, diced
3 kafir lime leaves
Zest of 1 lime
1 piece of palm sugar or a few cubes of raw cane sugar
1 desert spoon of dried shrimps
1 desert spoon heavy soy  sauce
1 Tspn of oyster sauce
1 Tspn of light fish sauce
1 Tspn of Tamarind  paste
1/2 to 1 Tspn of shrimp flavoured chilli powder

Put all into a blender and blitz until it is all a nice fine paste, transfer into a clean sterilised jar, this will keep in the refridgerator for a couple of weeks, when it gets a fur coat on the top sling it!

For the Tom Yam soup

For 2 people as a main course or 4 as a starter:

1 litre of your home made super-dooper chicken stock

2 Tspns of your home made Tam Yam paste ( try it at 2 to start with, you can always add a bit more to suit your taste)

10  shelled large prawns (better if you can get fresh, but frozen will do at a push)

1 cup full of diced meat from the chicken oops hen (the rest can be put into the remaining stock and frozen for a rainy day)

2 stalk of lemon grass white only, husked, crushed and very finely sliced

1 clove of garlic sliced
1 piece of galangal (about 2,5 cm) sliced ever so fine (mandolin is good, but watch those fingers)

The remainder from the bunch of spring onions (keep some as a garnish for later)

2 smallish chillis de-seeded and finely sliced

1 bunch of coriander leaves chopped (you can use the stalks and roots in the stock)

140g shiitake mushrooms (if fresh are unavailable try preserved, I did, or use brown cap)

50g of rice noodles,the flat ones (soaked)

6 small red tomatoes, cut into quarters and de-seeded

A small knob of shrimp paste (size of a finger nail) don't worry if you don't have any

Juice of 1 lime (if needed, only add if you think it is not sour enough)

The making of: (I have heard about this malarky in films)


In a clean pan (or better still a large wok with a burnt bottom) heat a little corn oil,  add the garlic along with two tea spoons of the Tom Yam paste (or more you hero) heat through to release the natural oils (don't burn),

add the whites of the spring onions, the lemon grass and the sliced galangal, soften and add 1 litre of the chicken stock, heat through to just below boiling.

Add the shiitake’s, some of the chilli's and tomato's. Add the noodles, the cooked chicken pieces and the shrimp paste. Now the prawns, when heated through (just a couple of minutes, don’t cook for too long they go tough and aren’t all that nice) taste and adjust seasoning with more soy, fish sauce, chilli flakes or lime juice if needed. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, spring onions, sliced chillies.

Serve either in individual soup bowls with spoons or in a terrine for everyone to help themselves ( I often serve side dishes of more chilli flakes, coriander and diced spring onions. As some people (not I) have an aversion to coriander (don't tell them it is in the paste) you can serve the chopped coriander totally as a side dish :-(

I personally think that chopsticks are a must and ideally one slurps from the bowl (bib required). But Chinese porcelain spoons can be used for those not proficient in the use of chopsticks and slurping.

I had my first real taste of Tom Yam in a Hawkers Market below one of Singapore’s department stores! I got my bowl of Tam Yum complete with piles whole prawns, I being young innocent and completely naive (some would say daft), I sprinkled a large amount of crushed dried chillies over the top of what I later discovered was an already well spiced soup, aagghhh *%%!!@@ it almost blew my head off, the Asian Gentleman sitting opposite, look at me in amazement, as the sweat streamed out of my head (and the rest of my body), he kept shaking his head and continued eating his soup, which I must add had far more added chillies than mine. BUT I did finish it, it was another few months before I tried it once again, this time I did not add any extra chillies and found it rather nice, I have now increased my pain level to a point of now being able to eat my Tom Yam soup with a decent amount of fire without causing embarrassment to myself and others:-D