Meals for one

Laksa flavoured cauliflower and gorgonzola soup

Posted by Gary

Hello Reader,

How are you? I hope you had a brilliant week. Life for me is going splendidly. I am loving life. I couldn’t be happier, personally. Professionally, it’s excellent and exciting. The last couple of days have been exceptional at work.

Want to avoid the silly sausage story? Here’s the recipe!

Democracy sausage (roll)

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

Today we get an opportunity to exercise our right to a free and fair vote for members of the House of Representatives and jurisdictional senators in the Australian Senate.

It’s become a ‘thing’, almost a tradition, for voters to consume a democracy sausage while lined up waiting to vote or after they’ve done the deed.

In its most basic form, a democracy sausage is a snag1 cooked on an outdoor hotplate and served in a folded slice of the cheapest white bread. There is no butter, the fat from the sausage being sufficient to lubricate the snag and offer some moisture to the dry bread. Some people will provide tomato or barbecue sauce. I’ve seen some people combine both the tomato and barbecue sauces and have it with their sausage. I will not judge them.

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

We now see all manner of diversity in terms of the sausage sandwiches. There are vegetarian and vegan sausages. The bread can be gluten-free or sourdough or multi-grain, or any other type of bread.

Apart from the sauce, extras often include cooked onions, and we get the debate of onions under or over the sausage2. Some people have kimchi, others sauerkraut, and others also have cheese.

My democracy sausage was a sausage roll because that’s how I roll 😉

Last night, I got home late and felt like making fried rice with tinned corned beef. I made it spicy with some Bird’s-eye chillies.

Corned beef fried rice
Corned beef fried rice

My democracy sausage (roll) is leftover spicy corned beef fried rice in puff pastry.

While I’m having a little fun here, I’m conscious that there are foreign governments that do not hold free and fair elections. I respect the right of a foreign government to conduct itself sovereignly. While not a fan of the United Nations nor any of its derivative organisations, I hope that humankind will enjoy total freedom and an abundance of life.

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

Back to the soup!

Cauliflower

Ingredients

  • Cauliflower
  • Potato
  • White onion
  • Leek
  • Bacon
  • Laksa paste (a commercial paste because life is too short)
  • White peppercorns
  • Vegetable stock
  • White wine
  • Gorgonzola

Instructions

  1. Dissect a cauliflower into florets.
  2. Roughly slice a leek. You can be rough with this leek. In the end, it’s all blended.
  3. Dice an onion.
  4. Dice the spud.
  5. Dice the bacon.
  6. Pound the white peppercorns in a mortar with a heavy hard pestle. Please give it a good pounding because you don’t want a gritty result from your pounding.
  7. Crumble the gorgonzola.
  8. Heat a saucepan on a hob.
  9. Sauté the bacon to render some fat, and then add the onion and leek to get the aromas in the air, so your kitchen area is rich with fragrance. If you like, you could add garlic too.
  10. Add the cauliflower and potato to the cooked bacon, onion, and leek.
  11. Cover everything with wine and vegetable stock and add a tablespoon of the laksa paste.
  12. Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer until the potato and cauliflower are soft.
  13. Turn off the heat and process the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
  14. Turn the heat back on to low.
  15. Add in the crumbled gorgonzola cheese and season with the pepper to taste.
  16. Ladle the soup to a bowl.
  17. Place the rest in vacuum bags and, using a vacuum chamber sealing device, seal the bags and freeze for another day.
  18. Give thanks to the Lord.
  19. Enjoy the soup and ponder life and love and how everything seems to fit together. Each part complements the other elements in life.
Vacuum sealed cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese

Thoughts on the soup

I know cauliflower soup isn’t a favourite for one of my daughters. She dislikes it intensely. For me, though, it has flavour, and the cheese gives it a thickness almost like a sauce. It’s rich and flavourful.

Combining something distinctly Asian and European seems to be a thing with me. Laksa paste and gorgonzola cheese. Who knew?

Final thoughts

  1. Is combining laksa paste and gorgonzola cheese an abomination or brilliance on my part? I liked it. You might like it too. Please give it a go and let me know.
  2. Does cauliflower give you flatus? I reckon tonight, my freshly laundered sheets will take on a new aroma 😆
  3. How do you feel about the democracy sausage? If you’re not Australian, do you have any election traditions?
  4. A workmate who saw my sausage roll asked if it counts as a democracy sausage. What do you think?

Footnotes

  1. The snag is slang for sausage
  2. A local hardware chain, viz., Bunnings, created controversy when it directed all sausage sandwiches sold at its stores not to have onions over the sausage. The management deemed the risk of slipping on dropped onions to be a safety hazard. The direction is to tuck the onion under the meat sac.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese
Cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese

Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Posted by Gary

Hello Reader,

One of my fondest childhood meals was braised pig trotters in vinegar with ginger. Mum made it once every year or so when I was a boy.

Pig trotters Choice pork
Pig trotters

It wasn’t until I was an adult that Mum explained the purpose of this dish. It was to nourish new mothers after their bodies were depleted of essential life force associated with gestation, confinement, and the postpartum demands of a newborn infant. I don’t know if there is any scientific evidence to support this. I don’t care. I like the taste of the dish. It has the sharpness of the vinegar, the sweetness of the sugar, and the refreshing heat of the ginger. It would make my mouth tingle and feel fresh.

I’d only had this dish made with white vinegar as a child and teenager. Up until my 30s, I had no idea that black vinegar was a thing. I recall going to Hong Kong for a work trip in the early 2000s. It was a one-night stay, and for lunch, we went to a local café, and I saw pig trotters in ginger and black vinegar on the menu. I wondered if it might be like the dish Mum made. It wasn’t like Mum’s at all. (In my humble opinion) black vinegar pig trotters aren’t as enjoyable as Mum’s. Since then, I’ve had pig trotters in ginger and vinegar in other restaurants, and they were all black vinegar dishes. They all had a hint of Mum’s dish but not the essential essence.

I was chatting with Mum during the week and asked if she could share her recipe with me.

“Gary, it’s been so long since I’ve made that dish. I never had a recipe; I just threw things into a pot. We never had fancy Chinese vinegar, so we’d substitute with whatever we had.”

Mum uses Johnnie Walker red and black label whisky for cooking because she doesn’t have Chinese cooking wine. Dad would get bottles of whiskey as gifts from patients every Christmas. My parents, like me, don’t drink alcohol; Mum would cook with it. Like the wine, rather than Chinese vinegar, Mum used cheap white vinegar.

It turns out it’s been close to 25 years since Mum has made this dish.

So, dear reader, this is an experiment; I will toss in a pressure cooker the things Mum can remember and see what happens.

Just a note for the fair dinkum East Asian food aficionados, I’m not adding the boiled eggs because it’s too much faffing about. All I care about is the meat and fat, and flavour. If I’d given birth and was breastfeeding, I still doubt I’d faff with the eggs.

Hairy pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Ingredients

  • Pig trotters (I bought mine from the local butcher)1
  • Pork belly (I bought two trotters, so I thought I’d add some pork belly because I wanted more meat. I think hocks would have been better.)
  • White or rice vinegar (not sure if rice vinegar would work)
  • Dry sherry2
  • Ginger (a big girthy rhizome3, long with good weight [technically, ginger isn’t a root, it’s a rhizome] Big girthy rhizome sounds better than a big girthy root too)
  • Sugar (white)
  • Salt (iodised)
  • Pepper (freshly pounded white and black peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle)
  • MSG (as much as you want)4
  • Cloves (a few)
  • Rice (I used jasmine rice because that’s all I had)
  • Bok choi (this is optional, but I know there will be readers who will tsk and wonder about my bowel health)
  • Spring onions (this as garnish)
Breville Fast Slow cooker
Breville Fast Slow cooker

Instructions

  1. Remove the bristles from the pig trotters. Unless you like the mouthfeel of some hairs as you mouth and suck on the skin and gelatinous fat off the pig’s trotter. It might be like mouthing and sucking someone’s toes. How do you feel about toe jam5? Do you like sucking toes? I could have used a disposable razor to shave off the hairs but I didn’t because I’m lazy and I don’t mind hairy.
  2. Peel a few thick girthy thumbs of ginger. I like a lot of ginger but use as much or as little as you like.
  3. Cut the ginger into bite-size pieces and give them a good whack with a Chinese cleaver to help release flavour.
  4. Add the trotters, vinegar, dry sherry, sugar, ginger, salt, MSG, cloves, and pepper into the cooking vessel of a pressure cooker. Mum didn’t give me weights and volumes, so I guessed based on intuition. If you really want to know, it was a couple of cups of vinegar, a cup of dry sherry, a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of MSG, maybe half a dozen or so cloves, and a tablespoon each of the white and black peppercorns.
  5. Cook for 40 minutes. Again, this duration is a guess based on feelings. The time starts when the pressure is reached not when you turn it on.
  6. Cook rice. Use a rice cooker if you have one, or microwave a packet and try to avoid criticism from purists.
  7. Allow the pressure cooker to equilibrate and leave it for at least 15 minutes. Taking the lid off a pressure prematurely can leave your meat dry. It’s like most things that happen prematurely, you want to give things time and do it slowly.6
  8. Gently remove the pig trotters and pork belly from the cooking vessel and pass the liquor through a sieve.
  9. Place the filtered liquor into a saucepan and reduce it to a slightly sticky syrup.
  10. Place the fluffy rice into a bowl and add the pork and reduced liquor into another bowl.
  11. As an option, if you like green things, you could steam some Chinese vegetables like Bok choi or something similar.
  12. Garnish the pig trotters with some spring onions. I also like garnishing with bird’s-eye chillies. While this dish doesn’t need the heat of the chilli, I like keeping my mucous membranes and nerve endings excited.
  13. Give thanks to the Lord.
  14. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.

Thoughts

It turns out I did a thing! It tasted okay. It may not be authentic, but I’m happy. Now I need to practice this dish; perhaps Mum may like it.

To be fair, I think I may have used too much pepper and ginger. While not lingering, my mouth especially my lips were tingling like I’d had a mouthful of Sichuan pepper. The Bird’s-eye chillies which I used as garnish reinforced the heat on my lips and tongue.

Unlike most meals I write about, this one had a bit of thought behind it. I didn’t know if it would work. It could have been awful. I’m grateful it wasn’t.

The current outbreak of Japanese encephalitis which is affecting the Australian pork industry will likely cause the prices of pork to escalate. I’m savouring this dish as I plan to eat more chicken and vegetables.

In case anyone is concerned, while pigs are amplifying hosts of the Japanese encephalitis virus, JEV infection of pigs has no effect on the meat which is still safe for human consumption. Unfortunately, JEV infection of sows results in fetal death in utero and mummification of piglets. We really need to get on top of the outbreak to keep pigs healthy, farmers happy, and consumers satisfied.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you have a childhood dish you’re keen to make? What is it?
  2. Do you like pig trotters? How about pig hocks?
  3. Would you like a meal like this to replenish your vital essences if you’ve recently given birth?
  4. If you try making this, please leave a comment for me to read. Thank you.

Footnotes

  1. I bought the pig trotters from The Butcher Shop at Jamison Plaza
  2. Chinese cooking wine would also be okay
  3. An underground stem that has roots and shoots from its nodes
  4. King of flavour
  5. Toe jam refers to the crud which accumulates between toes. Washing your feet is essential.
  6. When I first read about the slow food movement, I thought it was a bit poncy, however, I’ve learnt how much better my cooking and eating enjoyment is when I take things slowly and move deliberately.
Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger
Pig trotters
A pair of pig trotters and a piece of pork belly
Pressure cooker pig trotters and pork belly
Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger
Hairy pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

When I read “tomahawk”, I think of a small axe! This steak was more like a small hatchet.

I saw this in the supermarket yesterday while grocery shopping and my eyes shone like dinner plates.

Two weeks ago, when I went out for the chicken parmigiana dinner with workmates, I saw the Fenway Public House tomahawk steak on the menu. My friend, MG, said her husband loves a tomahawk steak. My reply was that we should all return for a meal and enjoy a steak.

Sous vide tomahawk steak

When I saw this steak in the meat display cabinet, I immediately thought to cook it at a low temperature in the oven. I’d follow this by searing it in a castiron skillet. To prepare for this approach, I dry brined the meat with monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG, and King of Flavour!

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

The more I thought about the meal; I concluded I would cook it “under vacuum” (sous vide).

Ingredients

  • Steak
  • MSG
  • Cabbage
  • Sesame oil
  • Shallots
  • Red chillies
  • Carrot
  • Parsley
  • Instant gravy

Instructions

  1. Think ahead and give yourself a day to prepare so you can dry brine the meat.
  2. Place the steak on a rack over a baking tray.
  3. Season the steak with MSG.
  4. Place the steak on the rack and then into the refrigerator and leave uncovered overnight.
  5. When you want to cook the steak, place the meat into a vacuum bag and seal it.
  6. Cook the meat in a water bath at 54 °C (129 °F) for two hours. This temperature should produce a medium-rare result.
  7. Remove the meat from the bag and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
  8. Sear the surfaces of the steak in a hot castiron skillet basting it in some butter.
  9. Allow the steak to rest for between 5 and 10 minutes.
  10. Make the instant gravy as per the maker’s instructions.
  11. Make the cabbage side dish with sliced cabbage, julienned carrot, sesame oil, shallots, and parsley.
  12. Put all the vegetables in a microwave cooking container and add some vegetable oil, MSG, and pepper. Heat with microwave radiation until it’s cooked and the cabbage still has some crunch.
  13. Carve the flesh from the rib bone, and with a sharp knife, follow the muscle bundle fascia to prise apart the principal muscle bundles.
  14. Keep the eye fillet aside for meals later in the week.
  15. Slice the fat cap meat.
  16. Place the bone plus the fat cap meat on a dinner plate alongside the cabbage side dish.
  17. Spoon over some gravy.
  18. Give thanks to the Lord.
  19. Eat with a steak knife and fork unless, like me, you live alone and eat with fingers in a primal fashion.
  20. The best part may be gnawing the meat from the rib bone.

Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)

You can find the FSANZ technical report on their website. MSG=monosodium glutamate; CRS=Chinese restaurant syndrome. I recognise and acknowledge there are many people who prefer to avoid MSG and I’d never suggest they should try it or that they don’t have a legitimate reason not to use it or consume it.

I’ve had a few people ask me about MSG and my opinion so I thought it best to refer to a published report in which I have no concerns.

A friendly Tweep who has asked about MSG

The report concludes:

“There is no convincing evidence that MSG is a significant factor in causing systemic reactions resulting in severe illness or mortality. The studies conducted to date on CRS have largely failed to demonstrate a causal association with MSG. Symptoms resembling those of CRS may be provoked in a clinical setting in small numbers of individuals by the administration of large doses of MSG without food. However, such affects are neither persistent nor serious and are likely to be attenuated when MSG is consumed with food. In terms of more serious adverse effects such as the triggering of bronchospasm in asthmatic individuals, the evidence does not indicate that MSG is a significant trigger factor.“

Final thoughts

  • Do you like gnawing meat from the bone?
  • Do your eyes shine like dinner plates when you see something you lust after in the supermarket meat display cabinet?
  • What would you do with the leftover fillet meat?
  • What are your thoughts on MSG?
A small Coles tomahawk steak
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brining with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brining with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brined with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brined with MSG and vacuum sealed.
Sous vide tomahawk steak
Sous vide tomahawk steak
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage

Chicken breast with coleslaw

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Greetings from a wet Canberra. If you’re not from Australia, you may have read or seen or heard in the news that the east of Australia is experiencing a second wave of heavy rain.

Looking at how much water there is, makes me wonder how much rain fell when God commanded Noah to build the ark. Fortunately, God promised Noah He wouldn’t do that again. Every time I see a rainbow, I remember God’s promise.

Chicken breast

Ingredients

  • Chicken breast
  • Aluminium foil
  • Baking paper
  • Eggs
  • Feta cheese
  • Parsley
  • Spring onions
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Cabbage
  • Carrot
  • Shallots
  • Wasabi mayonnaise
  • Sour cream
  • Lime juice
  • Sugar
Chicken breast and coleslaw

Instructions

  1. Lay your breast on a cutting board.
  2. Trim off any excess.
  3. Make a longitudinal incision from one pole to the other with a sharp knife.
  4. Gently open the pouch with the tip of the knife on either side of the vertical incision.
  5. Scrunch some aluminium foil and wrap it in some baking paper.
  6. Insert the rod of foil and paper into the pouch you’ve just fashioned.
  7. Turn the oven on to about 150 °C.
  8. Heat a frying pan.
  9. Add a small volume of vegetable oil.
  10. Cook the chicken breast and turn it every few minutes.
  11. The aim is to create and fill a vacuole after the pan-frying.
  12. When the meat fibres have been cooked and feel stiff, turn off the heat and remove the foil/paper filler.
  13. Add some crumbled feta cheese, sliced spring onion, chopped parsley, pepper, and egg white to a small bowl. Mix and spoon into the hole you’ve created in the breast.
  14. Place the frying pan and chicken into the oven and cook until the egg white has set.
  15. Remove the chicken from the oven.
  16. Place yolks on the set egg white.
  17. Place it back into the oven and cook until the yolks have cooked to your liking.
  18. Allow the chicken to rest a little.
  19. Plate up the chicken on a dinner plate along with the coleslaw.
  20. Thank the Lord for all things.
  21. Enjoy the meal.

Final thoughts

  • Have you ever done this with a chicken breast?
  • How was your week?
  • Is it wet where you are?
Chicken breast
Chicken breast and coleslaw
Chicken breast and coleslaw
Chicken breast and coleslaw

Pressure cooker arborio rice and beef short rib

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

I’m punching out a quickie for you.

I had a near-perfect day today. The church service was excellent, and I had a good chat with my youngest brother, who lives interstate. I completed a talk to honour a friend and recorded it since I won’t be able to attend the function held in his honour. I chatted with my girlfriend a couple of times, and I had a great Group FaceTime catch up with my daughters.

After what I think was a reasonably nutritious lunch, I decided on something a little indulgent for dinner. Well, it was pretty amazing.

Sunday lunch was drumhead cabbage soup with red chilli, coriander, red onion, vegetable stock, soy sauce, MSG, and Sriracha sauce.

Ingredients

  • Arborio rice
  • Beef short rib fingers
  • Master stock
  • MSG
  • Red onion
  • Red chillies
  • Coriander
  • Lime

Instructions

  1. Add a cup of arborio rice to the pressure cooker vessel.
  2. Pour in a cup of master stock created and nurtured from the liquor of many previous dishes knowing this is its final resting place because the rice will absorb it all.
  3. Sprinkle in a good whack of MSG. A good whack is equivalent to a generous pinch. A good whack is not as much as a good smack.
  4. Sit the beef short rib fingers atop the rice.
  5. Seal the lid and turn on the pressure cooker.
  6. Set the pressure cooker to 1 hour.
  7. After the internal pressure has equilibrated to atmospheric pressure, remove the lid and gently lift the ribs. Gently wiggle the bone and gently pull on it to get it to come out of its meat tunnel.
  8. Scoop out the glutinous rice and put it into a bowl. If you’ve done this correctly, the rice will stick a little to the cooker’s base, and when you lift it off, there will be some lovely caramelised bits that add to the richness of the flavour with some texture. You’ll note that the rice has absorbed all the stock. It will be brown, gooey, and sticky, and it will have a magnificent rich fragrance.
  9. Set some of the rice in a bowl and add slices of the rib meat.
  10. Garnish with cut red onion, red chillies, and coriander leaves.
  11. Add some spicy kick with a good spurt of Sriracha sauce.
  12. Add some acid with a squeeze or two of lime juice.
  13. Give thanks to the Lord.
  14. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.
Pressure cooker arborio rice and beef short rib enhanced with MSG, red onion, red chillies, and coriander