Sansblogue

Sage is a great flavour for winter, last week I cooked a chicken for visitors down in Tauranga, and despite using a nice barn raised chook all the comments were on the stuffing. If you suffered from packeted dried “Sage and Onion Stuffing” as a child, forget it. Packet stuffing is like dried parsley, or instant coffee, not worth the time they save!

Stuffing is easy:

• some bread cut into small chunks (or wapped briefly in a processor, but don’t make it breadcrumbs, they’re too fine)
• zest of a lemon or two (add the juice later if it seems dry)
• an egg
• a handful of fresh sage leaves chopped into peices
• a handful of bacon also chopped
• salt and pepper

Mix together, if the egg is not quite enough to bind it all together then add lemon juice or another egg. Stuff the bird and roast.

That meant I had sage left over, and those little pots never really grow for me, and the NZ Herald had a delicious looking recipe for Pumpkin, Sage and Blue Cheese Fritters. We also had an unused butternut, and I love blue cheese :) So since I have sent “‘Exile away from his land’: Is landlessness the ultimate punishment in Amos?” off for what I hope is the final time, “The book of Amos and the Day of YHWH” to a colleague for criticism, and am getting on well with “Degrees of Presence” I celebrated by trying the recipe.

It too is simple:

• grated butternut (I used a cup or so)
• small red onion (also grated – yes, I grate them together in the food processor, do you think I like skinned knuckles?)
• blue cheese crumbled – not much (unless like me you are a fiend for blue cheese ;)
• a few Tbsp Rice Flour
• a little baking powder (I used 1/2 tsp)
• handful of chopped sage leaves
• egg white (the yolk will make mayo or something later)

Mix them all up and fry :)

Easy as, and delicious.

No pictures because the kitchen gremlin seems to have put soya flour (or something) into the jar marked Rice Flour, and the recipe really needs the rice flour to make it crisp! So mine was a delicious fried mash instead of fritters, so no photo this time :(

Fresh, rich and delicious Burmese noodle salad Photo from Borderline

We’ve been eating less meat, since the kids are leaving home (they are all confirmed and voracious carnivores ;-) among the recipes I’ve found useful is this warm Noodle Salad from Burma. We watched it being prepared at Borderline in Mae Sot when we did a cookery course there. I wish I had taken a photo of the meal since their version looked a lot more appetising than the one I prepared over the weekend – in a hurry as we were reorganising the kitchen all afternoon :(

Ingredients:

• wheat noodles (ideally from your local Asian store, not rice noodles, but almost Tagliatelle – which you could probably use if stuck, though it is not the same) enough for the number you are feeding I’ll give quantities for 4 as a main.
• vegetables (ideally gourd, but corgettes work quite well and carrot is OK…)
• cabbage 1-2 handsfull
• spring onions a few
• beansprouts 1.5 cups
• hard tofu one block (depending on size)
• corriander 4-5 plants
• red onions 2 small
• yellow bean powder 0.5-1 teacup (a mix of 50/50 soya powder and ground up peanuts works fine)
• rice flour 5 tsp
• chilli powder 1-2tsp
• turmeric 1tsp
• garlic 4-5 cloves (or if you can find it packeted crispy fried garlic)
• oil for deep frying (in a wok is traditional) use 1/2 teacup of this later for the spices

Mix rice flour with water to make a creamy paste (if you use courgettes you should add extra rice flour to make the cream thick as courgettes are watery and risk going soggy not crisp in the salad).

Slice the cabbage, spring onions thinly, slice the onions and garlic even thinner (keep the garlic separate), and chop the coriander (roughly as you want some whole or nearly whole leaves as well as some cut finer.

Cut the vegetable into small (finger size) pieces. Cut the tofu similarly. Coat in the rice flour cream and fry till crisp and golden.

Mix the chilli, garlic and turmeric and pour over 1/2 cup of hot oil (the mixture will fizz up and the spices will cook to perfection) to make a dressing.

Dry fry the bean powder till it darkens, do not burn it!

Cook the noodles and drain, washing in cold water so they stick less.

Assemble by mixing the noodles, dressing, bean powder and salad, use the gourd (carrot or courgette) and tofu to decorate. Eat ideally while still warm.

Frying Pan by Wikimedia

I’ve been cooking for years, off and on since my mum first let me collect and mix the ingredients for a “Dundee Cake”, on through the years when I introduced my long-suffering family to strange and exotic foods from around the world, cooked from a book that had no pictures to show you how the dish was meant to look (as well as making the book too expensive for a 12 year-old  they might have cramped by “style” ;) and then through the decades of children who imposed their own limitations… And all that while, I never learned to fry :(

Now, over the last months thanks to the brilliant RouxBe cooking school with its free online classes, and careful explanations of why we do what we do, as well as how, I’m learning :)

It’s quite simple really, basically

1. get the pan hot (yes good and hot, before you add the oil) a drop of water should sizzle energetically otherwise it is too cool – RouxBe explains it all fully
2. now, and not before, add the oil, usually just a little, and swirl it around the base
3. add the food to cook, do NOT be tempted to add too much or the pan will cool and you’ll just steam whatever it is, and I like my aubergines or potato fritters crisp please :)
4. now cook the rest (still patiently, a little at a time – it is all about heat, though not too much)