June | 2016 | Sam's Kitchen

Monthly Archives: June 2016
- Chilli Oil
  
  Posted at 4:59 pm by samskitchen, on June 28, 2016
  A simple and delicious condiment – this chilli oil can be used as a dressing for your soups and salads.
  
  Make little jars of this beautiful deliciousness and give them to your heat loving friends as gifts.
  I’m thinking of stocking up my pantry with different flavour chilli oils for the winter, to keep warm and help keep the pesky flu bugs away!
  
  After years of living and traveling around Southeast Asia, I have become very accustomed to eating hot food. Since coming back to our home in Australia 8 months ago I’ve started to miss the food I had become so familiar with eating on a daily basis. And it’s not just the heat I’m missing, but the delicious Asian flavours and many small condiments and spices that I’ve tried along the way and fell in love with.
  
  Here, with this chilli oil, I’m recreating one of my favourite Asian condiments.
  
  Sometimes it can be a bit tricky in a small western world town to find the ingredients I’m looking for, but I’ve tried my best at finding suitable replacements.
  
  Ingredients
  
  3/4 cup grapeseed oil ( or any other light flavour oil )
  2 star anise
  1-2 cassia bark sticks or 1 cinnamon stick
  1/2 tbsp black peppercorns ( Chinese Sichuan peppercorns if available )
  
  1/4 cup chilli flakes
  1/2 tbsp sesame seeds ( optional )
  1 spring onion thinly sliced ( optional )
  
  Method
  
  Prepare a small saucepan, sieve and a heatproof bowl.
  1. Place star anise, cassia bark and peppercorns into a small saucepan, then pour oil over the top.
  2. Place chilli flakes, sesame seeds and sliced spring onion into a heatproof bowl.
  3. Bring oil and spices to a simmer over a low heat and simmer for 1 minute.
  4. Remove the saucepan with the oil and spices off the heat and carefully pour through the sieve into a bowl with chilli flakes.
  5. Give it a little stir and leave to cool before pouring into a glass jar.
  6. Refrigerate and use as needed.
  Notes
  
  Use lesser amount of chilli flakes for a milder oil. Roasted Japanese sesame seeds will give the oil beautiful nutty flavour. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the flavours to find out your favourite ones.
  Mix with black vinegar, soy or tamari sauce to drizzle over dumpling soup or steamed dumplings.
  If omitting scallions, it’s ok to for the oil to be kept in the pantry or a kitchen cupboard.
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  Posted in Pickles & Preserves, Salads & Sides, Starters & Antipasto | 7 Comments | Tagged asian recipe, chili oil, cooking, easy recipe, food, gluten free, hot oil, recipe, side dish, spicy, spicy oil
- Homemade Wonton Wrappers
  
  Posted at 8:13 am by samskitchen, on June 23, 2016
  Easy homemade wonton wrappers – they can also be used to make gyoza wrappers, dumplings or egg rolls, also perfect for deep frying or any other quirky idea you may come up with for their use.
  
  I know, it’s so easy to buy ready-made wrappers but I take so much joy in making my own and it doesn’t really take all that long. It would most probably take me longer to get into the car, drive to the shop, browse, do the shopping, wait at the check ou ( doing it all with a toddler in tow )…. hmmm, just playing it all out in my mind makes my head dizzy. No, it is definitely easier for me to make them at home. The other upside is that there are no artificial additives or preservatives in my homemade wrappers and that is definitely of comfort.
  
  I’m using cornflour ( cornstarch ) to dust the surface when rolling out the dough. Unlike plain flour, corn flour will keep the dough soft and pliable.
  
  On this particular occasion, I made pork wonton soup in Asian-style stock with spiced hot chili oil. It was yum!
  Recipe for this soup is to follow on my next blog post.
  
  Ingredients
  
  2 1/2 cups plain flour
  2 eggs
  1/4 cup + 1 tbsp water ( depending on the quality of the flour )
  1 tsp salt
  Cornflour ( cornstarch ) for dusting
  
  Method
  
  Sieve plain flour into a bowl of a stand mixer ( or any other mixing bowl ), add salt, mix and make a well.
  Whisk eggs and 1/4 cup water in a separate bowl then pour the mixture into a well.
  Mix using a mixer and a dough hook or mix by hand until it comes together and a dough has formed. ( Add more water, but only a little at a time if your dough continues to be dry, or more flour if your dough is too tacky ). The dough should be elastic.
  Move the dough to a bench lightly dusted with cornflour and knead for 3-5 minutes dusting with more corn flour as needed.
  Form the dough into a ball, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.Divide the dough into two or three equal pieces and shape them into balls.
  
  Divide the dough into two or three equal pieces and shape them into balls.
  Cover and set aside the spare dough balls while rolling out the first one.
  On a cornflour dusted bench roll the dough into 2mm thick rectangle or square shape, dusting with more cornflour as needed.
  Use a pasta machine to roll the dough if you are the lucky owner of one. If rolling by hand, using a good size rolling pin will help. Flip the dough over after a few good strokes, dust with corn flour and keep going with flipping dusting rolling till the dough is thin enough.
  
  Use a pasta machine to roll the dough if you are the lucky owner of one. If rolling by hand, using a good size rolling pin will help. Flip the dough over after a few good strokes, dust with corn flour and keep going with flipping dusting rolling till the dough is thin enough.
  Cut into palm size squares or circles for wontons and dumplings, cut bigger size squares for egg rolls.
  Your wrappers are ready to use.
  
  Notes:
  
  Use Pasta Tipo “00” flour if possible. It will give you a much silkier dough and will not tear as easily.
  When rolling the dough it’s normal for it to shrink back.
  Using cornflour for dusting will prevent your dough from becoming too stiff and will help keep it smooth at the same time preventing it from sticking.
  This recipe should give you 60 or more wonton wrappers.
  To freeze the wrappers dust them generously with cornflour, stack them up, wrap in plastic and freeze in airtight container.
  Defrost in the refrigerator. Or, as I normally do it, simply separate the amount you will need ( they should come off easily ) and defrost individually, it takes a few minutes for them to defrost.
  
  Don’t be afraid to experiment and try out new cooking skills, it can be fun when having a light-hearted approach.
  Happy cooking!
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  Posted in Breads&Pastries, Starters & Antipasto | 5 Comments | Tagged asian recipe, cooking, dough, dumpling, easy recipe, eggroll, food, homemade, pastry, ravioli, recipe, soup, wonton recipe, wonton wrapper
- Ham Hock and Potato Soup
  
  Posted at 11:54 am by samskitchen, on June 4, 2016
  Looking for a simple hearty lunch or dinner recipe? Try this warm and smoky soup made with ham, leek, peas and potatoes.
  
  I stumbled upon the ham hock I used in making this soup while browsing my favourite little deli shop in our town, Blue Ginger. It sat there, on a shelve looking very lonely and so I thought to rescue it. It was a fair decision since my soup turned out very flavourful.
  
  The ham is from a local free-range farm, The Farm House. I love buying their products. They are always fresh and delicious. Being a bit particular about knowing where my meat and poultry come from I try to stick with free-range and organic produce as much as possible.
  
  Serves 4
  
  Ingredients
  
  50g butter
  1 leek washed and thinly sliced ( discard the green ends )
  700-800g ham hock ( 1 large or 2 smaller size )
  800g potatoes peeled and cubed ( 4 cups )
  8-10 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock or water ( cube stock is fine to use )
  2 bay leaves
  2-4 springs fresh thyme
  1 cup frozen green peas
  Salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
  
  Method
  1. Melt butter in a large pot.
  2. Add sliced leek and saute over a medium heat for a few minutes, until leek is translucent and starting to lightly brown.
  3. Add stock or water, potatoes, ham hock, bay leaves and thyme springs.
  4. Season with cracked pepper ( since the ham hock is already salty you might not need to add any salt ). Cover with a lid and simmer over a low heat for 1,5 hours turning the hock occasionally.
  5. Add frozen peas and cook for a further hour or till meat starts to fall off the bone.
  6. Remove the hock from the pot and let to cool, then remove meat from the bone with the help of a fork or a knife and shred into bite size pieces.
  7. Lightly crush potatoes with a back of a spoon still leaving them a little bit chunky.
  8. Return meat to the pot.
  Season with salt if needed.
  Serve hot with bread or without.
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  Posted in Mains | 9 Comments | Tagged cooking, dinner, easy recipe, ham hock, ham soup, herbs, lunch, meat, potato soup, recipe, soup, winter recipe
- Pickled Sardines
  
  Posted at 1:50 pm by samskitchen, on June 1, 2016
  If like me you are a pickle lover – you are going to love these sardines. So easy to make and absolutely delicious to eat. They make a perfect finger food and a great way to impress your foodie friends with your culinary skill.
  
  It’s ok to use fresh or frozen sardines as long as haven’t been frozen longer than 2-3 months. If using frozen defrost in the refrigerator overnight prior pickling.
  
  Ingredients
  
  12 sardine fillets
  1 small spanish onion, thinly sliced
  2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced
  3 cloves garlic, smashed
  1 lemon peel
  3-4 bay leaves
  1 tsp peppercorns
  1 clove ( spice )
  
  1 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
  1 tbsp sugar
  1 tbsp sea salt
  
  1 thick lemon slice
  2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  
  800 ml glass jar with a plastic lead.
  
  Method
  
  Arrange sardines, jalapeno slices, onion slices, garlic, 2 bay leafs and lemon peel in a jar.
  Pour white wine vinegar into a pot. Add sugar, salt, clove, few peppercorns and 1-2 bay leafs.
  Bring to a simmer.
  Stir well to dissolve the sugar and salt.
  Turn the heat off.
  Carefully pour hot vinegar over the sardines. I recommend by starting with a few tbsp first to avoid the glass jar from cracking when getting into contact with a very hot liquid.
  Place the lemon slice on top and pour olive oil over the top.
  Seal and let to cool before refrigerating. Sardines will be ready to eat the next day.
  Enjoy!
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  Posted in Pickles & Preserves, Starters & Antipasto | 2 Comments | Tagged cooking, easy recipe, finger food, fish, pickled fish, pickles, recipe, sardines
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