Cooking with Bruce: Smoked chilli Chicken with Tamarillo

Hmmm it's been a few months. But you never know, this might become regular like.

Today, a recipe for smoked chilli chicken with tamarillo, originally it was described as 'Chipotle-roasted chicken with plum and tarragon salad', but really, that's a bit boring.

300gm of chicken boobies
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
dried, smoked, chilli (I used adobo and poblano ,to give heat and a fruity flavour)
30ml olive oil
lemon zest
2T worcester sauce
3 tamarillos
2t tarragon leaves
1 stick celery, chopped
2 spring onions
red-wine vinegar or balsamic
salt and pepper for taste

The day before:
Chop chicken up into smallish bits.
Mix garlic, chopped chilli, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and paper together, mix chicken through.
Leave overnight.

Fry chicken, and while it's cooking mix:
tamarillos, tarragon, celery, spring onions, vinegar, salt and paper.

Combine all. Eat.

It improves for lunch the next day.

Cooking with Bruce: Squid with stuff

It's been awhile. I know. You'll be thrilled to hear I haven't starved.

today's menu comes from my head. I wanted squid, I had squid. I didn't want chips. So I made something. It probably has a name. I'll call it 'steve'.

Ingredients
squid hoods for however many people you're feeding
plain flour
cayenne pepper

sunflower oil for frying

olive oil
onion finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1t caster sugar
1T (ish) pomegranate molasses
10 green olives [stones removed]
1T capers, rinsed
parsley

Cooking stuff

1. Remove squid guts, and scrape clean, score lightly in a crosshatch pattern.
2. Heat olive oil, and cook onions until slightly browned, remove (and drain).
3. Add a bit more olive oil, cook celery, garlic, tomatoes, sugar for a couple of minutes, add pomegranate molasses, olives, capers until starting to collapse. Add the onions to the mix, mix in the parsley. Cook for a couple of minutes and place into bowls.
4. Add sunflower oil to pan and heat to very hot, toss squid in the flour+cayenne pepper until well coated, and fry for 1-2 mins per side. 
5. Place squid on the mixture, eat.

I was thinking of using balsamic vinegar, but I'd run out, I think the pomegranate was a better choice anyway.

B

Cooking with Bruce: Creamy Chicken Pies

Yorks Alordy. It's been awhile since a recipe has graced these pages. Let's fix that...and yes, I know this has meat, but eh.
Inspired by my wandering to M&S to get new pillows, and ending up with some pie tins as well.

Creamy Chicken Pies
2T olive oil
3 bacon rashers, finely sliced
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 medium leek, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1T plain flour
250gm shredded roast chicken
150ml dry white wine
250ml chicken stock
2t thyme
60ml double cream
2T parsley
350gm puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
[for gluten free, use gf pastry and gf flour]

Heat over to 200C.

• Heat oil, and cook bacon until crisp. Remove, and fry onions and leeks gently for 10mins, add garlic and fry for 2 more mins.
• Return bacon, add flour, stir, add chicken, wine, stock and thyme. Season and simmer for 15 mins, cool down, add cream and parsley.
• Roll out pastry, add to pie dishes, fill them with mix, brush egg over top of the pastry and add the lids. Make a slit in the top for steam.
• Bake 35mins until golden.

Cooking with Bruce : Pecan Chocolate Mousse pie

Again, a fair gap between food blogs. But rest assured, I haven't starved. There is still significant (muscle) mass on the bones.

This blog gives an example of how the kitchen doesn't follow recipes - other than by utilising a few key ingredients. I had been told to make a gluten and dairy free dessert, and been sent a recipe for what was proudly (fuck knows why) called 'Gluten-free tofu peanut butter pie'.
Our kitchen doesn't respond well to being told to do anything, and I really don't like peanut butter, and putting tofu in a dessert seemed a really dumb idea. So things weren't off to a good start. I did like the concept of chocolate and maple syrup though. And so, plans were formed.

Here's what the incredibly sexy kitchen turned out:
Pecan Chocolate Mousse Pie
Base

1x pack gluten free digestives

3T cocoa powder

25gm pecans

115gm dark chocolate, melted

Combine first three in blender, mix in chocolate and pour into lined/greased cake tin. Place in fridge to chill and set.

Mousse

4 eggs separated

2t sugar

180gm dark chocolate, melted  [this gives 20gm for taste testing]

1t vanilla essence

2T maple syrup

1/4c chopped pecans  [in my case, beaten up with my fist in the plastic container]

Beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar and beat in.

Mix egg yolks and melted chocolate, add vanilla, maple syrup, and pecans. Fold in egg whites.

Pour into the base, and leave for a few hours to set.

For those of you interested in the original recipe, and no I can't remember where it came from, other than hell, it's included below (edited for brevity).

Love, B

<<<

Gluten-free tofu peanut butter pie

base

• 2 x 155g packets gluten-free, vegan ginger-nut biscuits or similar
• 6 tablespoons deodorised virgin coconut oil, melted
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 115g dark chocolate, melted
• 1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

filling

• 450g silken tofu, drained and patted dry
• 2/3 cup natural smooth peanut butter
• pinch sea salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup or runny honey (if not vegan)
• 145g dark chocolate, melted
• 1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

Line the base of a 22cm (9-inch) cake tin with baking paper (parchment). 

Place the biscuits and cocoa into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times before blending on high until finely ground. Add the melted coconut oil and blend until well incorporated. Press mixture into the lined cake tin, lining the base and coming up the sides by approximately 5 cm. Spread the melted chocolate over the base and spread a little up the sides too. Sprinkle with peanuts and set aside.

Place the tofu, peanut butter, a pinch of sea salt, vanilla essence and maple syrup into the food processor bowl (cleaned), blend on high until smooth, scrapping down the sides at least once to make sure it's all incorporated.  Add the melted chocolate and blend until evenly distributed. Pour mixture into the pie case, smoothing off the top as you go. Chill in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours, preferably overnight.

Cooking with Bruce : Fennel and Blue Cheese Souffle Tart

This is fantastic. And even better cold. Just make it. It also allowed me to deliver the line "look, the kitchen is not your place".

Ingredients
large head of fennel (or 2), chopped into sixths
olive oil
cup of milk
1T of butter
1T (heaped) of flour
3 eggs, separated
1/2c greek yoghurt
1t Dijon mustard
zest of lemon
40gm of grated parmesan
200gm (ish) of blue cheese (or even better, gorgonzola)
50gm toasted walnuts (ie cooked gently in butter/olive oil for 3-4mins) and broken up
Pastry (puff)

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C/Gas5
• Blanch fennel heads in boiling water for 2mins then roast in oven with olive oil, salt, pepper until browning and caramelising
• Melt butter in small pan, stir in flour until thick, add the milk slowly - stop when reasonably thick roux (was around 3/4c for me)
• Mix egg yolks, yoghurt, mustard, zest and add to roux with salt and pepper
• Grease tin, and cover with pastry, sprinkle parmesan over the base, chopped fennel, and walnuts
• Beat egg whites until stuff, and fold into roux. Spoon over the base. 
• Bake until 30min until set.

Cooking with Bruce : curried fish and pasta

It's been awhile since the last recipe, no real reason, I had a few I was going to put up, but for some reason (yeah ok, apathy) didn't.

This one is apparently from Antonio Carluccio - originally. I took one look at it, and decided it was unlikely to have enough flavour for me - it appeared to have been 'Englished'. So this is my version.

Curried Fish and Pasta
olive oil (large slug)
1x medium onion (chopped)
3x cloves garlic (chopped)
2 fish fillets
1 hot red chilli
150ml white wine (I was using a Pinot grigio, mainly as it was to hand)
400gm tomato passata
2T med-hot curry powder [I made my own]
2t cumin (freshly ground)
2t garam marsala
2 bay leaves
pasta

1. Heat olive oil in a frypan on medium heat, add onion, garlic, chilli, and fish. Cook gently for 10 mins, and add the wine. Continue cooking until the fish is cooked, I was breaking it up while I was cooking.
2. Remove the fish, onions, chilli and garlic leaving the liquid in the frypan. Add the passata, bay leaves and spices. Cook gently to reduce.
3. While the sauce reduces, cook the pasta to al dente
4. Combine all, and heat the fish through. Serve.

I thought it worked well, I'd rather spice it myself than use curry powder (pretentious, moi?) but that'd work too.

b

Cooking with Bruce : Caramelised shallots, fig and beetroot tart with French goat’s cheese and red wine syrup

Yes, I know it's been awhile since the last instalment of cooking with Bruce. I have been cooking, but have forgotten to post the recipes i liked. However yesterday I felt the urge to go a bit over the top so:

Caramelised shallots, fig and beetroot tart with French goat’s cheese and red wine syrup

100g Turkish dried figs

400ml red wine

300gm caster sugar

300gm puff pastry

4 large beetroot

400g chopped shallots

1t chopped thyme

200gm French goat’s cheese

Simmer figs, wine and caster sugar for 30mins then leave to cool overnight.

Cut puff pastry 5mm thick and cut into squares or circles, place on baking tray and rest for 30min before baking at 200C until golden.

Wrap beetroot individually in tin foil and bake until tender (rest on something to stop base burning), cool and chop into rounds, or boil gently until cooked.

Sweat shallots in olive oil, salt, and thyme, cover and cook until caramelised.

Drain figs and reserve the liquid, chop figs finely and add to shallots - cook for 5 mins. Allow to cool, reduce the liquid to a syrup. 

Top the pastry with the shallot mixture, then beetroot, top with goats cheese, season and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 5min at 200C. 

To serve, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, spoon some of the red wine syrup around the outside, with a green salad on the side. 

Love, B

Cooking with Bruce : Spicy vegetarian soup

So it's getting chillier (well it is here anyway), and I like spicy food. So in a nod to cultural norms that say autumn/winter is soup time, here's a spicy soup.

Ingredients
Spice Mix
Vege oil
onion chopped
3cm chopped ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
cinnamon (stick?)
2T toasted cumin seeds (I threw them in with the onion)
2 chillis - roughly chopped

Other Stuff
mushrooms - as many as possible
4-5 smallish spuds chopped
2x 390gm tomato tins
500ml vege stock


Cook the onion over gentle heat until soft. Throw all in blender, and process until smooth (may need a bit of water or oil).

Place into pan and cook until dry, add mushrooms/spuds/tomato and mix until boiling, add stock and simmer for 30-45 mins.

I added a bunch of other things (coriander leaves, asafoetida, tumeric etc), but hey, that's just me...

xx

Cooking with Bruce : Chocolate and Cherry torte

Welcome, again, to the occasional cooking with Bruce series. This time, overloading on chocolate and cherries.

I'd been ordered to make a chocolate cake, however telling me what I'm going to do and me doing it ... herding cats ... etc etc. Which is how I ended up with a chocolate torte, reasoning a) I wanted one b) it had chocolate and c) it's cherry season and I like them.

Not sure where I found this recipe, there's bits I've adapted...

Probably don't need to say it, but:

* chocolate : high quality and 75-80% cocoa

* cherry jam : again the better you can afford, the better the taste - cheaper ones don't have as much fruit and generally more sugar which can lead to bitterness when it's heated

Heat oven to 180C

Base

100g unsalted butter

300g flour

pinch of salt

1t bp

100g sugar

2 eggs

Butter and line a tin with baking paper - I think mine's about 20cm, and that got pretty high and took awhile to cook, so 24cm maybe better.

Place all (except eggs) into blender, pulse to breadcrumbs, add egg and pulse until it comes together. Press pastry over the base and up the sides of the tin. Refrigerate.

Chocolate

150g caster sugar

4 eggs

3T flour

500ml full cream milk

1t vanilla extract

200g 82% dark chocolate [minimum 70%] broken up roughly

200g fresh cherries, and stoned (man)

2-3T good quality cherry jam

1. Whisk sugar and eggs together until thick, stir in flour. 
2. Bring milk to boil, then pour into the eggs mixture while whisking
3. Add vanilla, and place over low heat
4. Add chocolate+jam and stir until mixture thickens and coats the spoon
5. Pour mixture into the tart, sprinkle cherries over the top

Cook for at least 45 mins (my 20cm tin = 70mins), allow to cool before removing and chopping up.

Even I will admit this doesn't need any cream. I know. I'm as shocked as you.

Tomorrow, you may get some indian food as I quite liked the ones I made last night...

Smoochies on your cherry [torte], me

Cooking with Bruce : Chicken and mango curry

This should work with anything, fish, tofu, whatever.

Spice Paste

1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2½ tbsp sambal oelek
3 medium-heat red chillies
30g fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
2-3 lemongrass stalks, either whole (sliced) or paste
1 tsp ground turmeric
12 small shallots
10 garlic cloves

Combine all in a blender, drizzle in oil to make it a paste.

Score some chicken breasts, then put half of the paste on them and leave to infuse for a couple of hours, turning occaisonally.

Fry chicken at very hot temp to sear on each side (2-3 mins)

Add remaining paste, cook for 10 mins (ish) until it turns a deep brown/red colour. Add in some veges (carrots, beans, capsicums), mango and 150ml coconut milk, cook for 5 mins, chop up the chicken and add that. Cook for 5 mins.

Flick some lime juice through it, and serve on rice.

Cooking with Bruce: Carrot Cake

This is my carrot cake recipe, which is an amalgamation of 3-4 other recipes I've used over the years. It's bloody good.

Carrot Cake - Bruce's Recipe

Cake ingredients

175g soft brown sugar

175ml vegetable oil / sunflower oil

3 eggs lightly beaten

3 medium carrots grated

100gm raisins

grated zest of one orange

175g self-raising flour (gluten free is fine)

1t bicarb of soda

1t vanilla extract

1t ground cinnamon (ideally freshly ground)

1/2t nutmeg (ideally freshly ground)

100gm chopped roasted walnuts

Icing ingredients

75gm butter

150gm cream cheese

350gm (roughly) icing sugar

1/2t vanilla extract

1-2t orange juice (and any zest lying around)

more walnuts to sprinkle

1. Preheat oven to 180C, oil/grease cake tin

2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs, carrots, raisins orange rind

3. Mix in flour, bicarb of soda, spices. Mixture will be runny, stir in walnuts.

4. Pour mixture into cake tin, bake for 45-60 mins until it springs back. Cool slightly, then turn out.

Icing

Mix all (except walnuts), and when cake is cool, spread over cake then sprinkle walnuts over the top.

Cooking with Bruce: salmon with honey lime chilli glaze & white bean salsa

Righto, this isn't one of mine. This comes from the lovely kiddiwinks at Cuisine, and it's damn good.

Barbecued side of salmon with honey lime chilli glaze & white bean salsa

We had it the other night, and it's full of tangy mexican goodness, chilli, lime, salsa, hell I felt like diving over fences or setting up a cartel.

One probable reason why it's so good, is that it's Al Brown's. Go Al. 

Recipe here.

B

Like Jesus

in the spirit of the suffering of jesus at easter, our household has embraced the season. rather than risk tetanus, we've got for a more modern approach. food poisoning. brilliant. 

my immune system took the pragmatic approach and collapsed early, so i'm now fine. S's took on the bacteria, fought a valiant rear-guard action, and has now succumbed.

this has, needless to say, cut severely into chocolate, beer, wine, whisky, and hot x-bun consumption. 

coming soon: another cabal review.

b

Cooking with Bruce: Red kidney bean daal

I found this one in an Aussie vege food magazine, but I've edited things a bit. Mainly as I see no reason at all to buy raw lentils and kidney beans, and cook the bastards for days on end to make them (slightly) softer. So buy them precooked. It just makes sense.

One thing that kinda pisses me off about being [mostly] vegetarian is the expectation that you love lentils. In general, I hate lentils. They're boring, generally poorly cooked, and have only been interesting here (note the Rush t-shirt!):


Red Kidney bean daal
packet/tin red kidney beans 250-300gm (ish)
packet/tin lentils 250-300gm (ish)
1T chilli flakes
1T coriander powder
thumb size grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 stick of cinnamon
10 cloves
1t cardamon
250gm [ish] of chopped tomato
50-60gm unsalted butter
75ml cream

Drain and rinse beans, add chilli, coriander, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and tomato and slow cook over a low heat for an hour (I guess...). If it gets dry, add water. stir occasionally. Add cream and butter and cook for 10-15mins stirring occasionally, remove the cinnamon stick. Serve over rice, naan, or other stuff.

btw: for the girls-blouses out there, I'd suggest pulling the chilli down (this probably applies to most of England too, given what I've had described as 'hot', pah!).

Love, B

Cooking with Bruce: Cupcakes

I know, it's all a bit trendy. Sorry.
I was wandering into town yesterday and came up with, hey I've got spare pomegranate seeds (as you do) and some limes. Those would work well together.

As usual, these measurements are guesses..but you can use gluten free flour and they taste good.

60gm unsalted butter
2/3c caster sugar
egg (beaten)
2/3c flour  [gluten free, eg rice, is fine]
1t bicarb of soda
75ml (ish) sour cream
pomegranate seeds
zest of lime

Cream B + S; add egg and smack it around until fluffy, add everything else. Put into either paper cases or greased muffin tin, cook for 20 mins at 180C.

B

Cooking with Bruce : Of marinades and slaw

Hey look, that incredibly popular occasional series 'Cooking with Bruce' is back. Brilliant!

i've decided to explore marinades a bit over the coming weeks, so this will act as a record of what I play with. This has been driven by a strange stirring for the sauce/marinade used on pork ribs, which is odd, as I hate pork ribs. So the following will be using vege's, but can be applied to meat, since that's where I'm ripping the ideas from.
Oh and in a gadget update, I've got a blender. For me, this counts as a massive gadget update, since my kitchen is oddly gadget free.

Chinese 5spice style marinade
4 garlic cloves chopped roughly
ginger - thumb of, roughly chopped
100ml dark soy sauce (or mix of dark/light)
100ml hoisin sauce
50ml honey
1t chinese five spice powder
1T sunflower oil

Blend all these. Roughly chop your veges, I used capsicums, carrots, quorn, chillis - so pretty much what was left in the house. Combine marinade and veges. Bake at 200C for 45mins.

Thai slaw
Carrot, peeled then grated
2x celery stalked, finely chopped
1-2c red cabbage, grated
1 red onion, grated
1 chilli, finely chopped
mint
parsley

Dressing
1T rice vinegar
1T palm sugar
2T lime juice
2T fish sauce
1T chilli sauce
(combine and mix)

Mix slaw, toss dressing through slaw.

Serve the veges/marinade on rice and shake some sesame seeds over it. Slaw on the side baby.

B x

Old beer - 1979 Thomas Hardy's Ale tasting

Most beer is bought to be drunk, quickly. There are very few beers which are brewed to be aged like red wine. Thomas Hardy's Ale is one of them. The stuff has had a convoluted history with production ceasing, starting up again, bottle sizes changes, closing again, starting, and currently ceased. I've got a number of bottles (15) from 2004-2008, but I managed to get two bottles from 1979 on ebay. Here's my tasting notes:

Thomas Hardy's Ale 

Bottle H 7561

1 Jan 1979

Brewed and bottled by: Eldridge Pope and Co. Ltd.

180ml (6.34 fl.ozs)

poured smooth and clear, no fizz, cloudy but no obvious sediment, quite thick

Nose:

marmite, vegemite, red wine, sweet - marshmallows

Palate:

very strong, tangy, bitter, complex, slightly musty, quite similar to an old complex red wine, 

hint of fizz, coffee - but percolated coffee, not espresso and not filter, lots of malt (like drinking maltexo?)

Finish:

warm, honey, long, more old red wine, not a fresh NZ red, more an old vine aftertaste, and later on, an odd musty note (which I've had with younger TH ales)

Overall, very similar to other Hardy's Ales I've had, but more so, less fight in it than the younger ones I've had. I don't know if it's improved over a 10 and 12 year old I've had, so it might be worth trying my 2004 brew shortly.

It seemed quite high in alcohol content too. 

Here's some pictures of the event, apparently that rarity - a sunny day.

me

load of old fat

Interesting report this week demonstrating that most published diet plans are a load of tosh. See here. Basically it appears the models of the NHS and the US NIH are flawed, they assume if you cut 500 calories, you'll lose 450gm a week. I've argued in the past that has to be flawed, weight loss (and gain), no matter how rigidly one sticks to the regime, is not a constant procedure - there are peaks, troughs, and plateau's.

I suspect most people wouldn't believe these numbers anyway.

If they did, then the impact of believing in the numbers would lead to depression as weight doesn't disappear as expected. Things start off well as the first 5-10kg is largely water, after that it's all nasty.

What redeems the diets is that the main focus is changing behaviour, which can lead to a useful feedback mechanism.
* change food types you eat
* change quantity of food
* change exercise regime

That strikes me as being a more useful focus of the plans, the weightloss can take care of itself. Kinda.

yeah im just blathering. whisky post should be here in the next day or two since the cabal covened last night.

Cooking with Bruce: Murgh Khubani

And for the last blog of the day - I know, nothing for weeks, then three in a day. like buses, or mammoth genomes.

Murgh Khubani 
In theory this should have apricots, however I had none, so this is my take on one. It's probably called something else. The original recipe uses chicken - which I've included here - but I used quorn.

500gm chicken, chopped
1/2c dates  [original had apricots]
1/2 sultanas
1/3c hot water
2/3c natural yoghurt
2t coriander powder
1t cumin powder
1/2t tumeric
1t salt
1/2t ground black pepper
1/2t chopped chilli
1t garam masala
2T ghee
cinnamon stick
3 bruised cardamon pods
2 finely sliced medium onions
2t grated fresh ginger
1t minced garlic
1/2t saffron threads steeped for 10min in 1T hot milk
1T chopped coriander
2T cream

Steep dates, sultanas in hot water for mins. Mix yoghurt with spices (down to garam masala), add chicken pieces and marinate for 2 hours.
Heat ghee, add cinnamon stick and cardamon pods and cook until it's aromatic, add onions, ginger and garlic and cook until clear. Add chicken and marinade, simmer 10 mins. Add date/sultanas and some liquid if it needs it - mine didn't.
Mix in saffron/milk and the chopped coriander, simmer 5 mins. Remove cinnamon and cardamon, stir through the cream. serve.

Must be time for a rest now. Too much blogging...

Cooking with Bruce: Tortilla's

A couple of recipes will follow. I think one them may have been stolen from cuisine, originally, but I can't find on their website so meh.

Piquillo Pepper and Potato Tortillas with smoked paprika aioli
4 medium potatoes, peeled, diced 2cm
olive oil for frying
1-2 red onions, finely chopped
salt and ground pepper to taste
6-8 piquillo peppers, chopped
5-6 medium eggs
2-3 T milk

(obviously these are largely guesswork)
Boil spuds in salted water for 5 mins, drain and cool.
Heat oil in frying pan to cover the base, fry onion gently until soft/clear and add some salt. Add spuds and peppers, fry 1 min, season with black pepper.
Whisk eggs with milk, and pour over spud mixture, lower heat and try to spread the egg mixture around the pan. This (in theory) helps it cook evenly. Your mileage will vary on that.

turn out onto plate, and either grill to finish, or place in low oven to finish. Serve with aioli

Aioli
3 egg yolks
1T white vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
1t smoked paprika (use good stuff, otherwise it's just not worth it)
200ml olive oil (or slightly less)
1/2 lemon

Whisk yolks, vinegar until light and fluffy and increased in size. Then while whisking add the oil until it's nice and thick. mix through the paprika and garlic, then a squeeze of lemon.

B