Silent Gardener

What Grows in Your Garden

a song by Wolfgang, a Pinoy rock band

In response...

...well some of them are :

Other flowers here

Hehe!

Morcilla

Morcilla (mor-si-yah) is the Spanish blood sausage usually with onions and spices but depending on the region the ingredients vary of course ;)

So just like any sane people who should make good use of just about every part of the pig - even its blood shouldn't go to waste! So fresh off a slaughtered pig, onto a receptacle and into the kitchen it goes to make this sausage! (or this perhaps if you want a soupier version)

can't go wrong with all that fat either!

Like the black pudding it is great simply sliced, fried, and served with brown bread!

cheddar and chorizo (the pink slice on top) are optional!

the bread in this instance is fried on the oil where the sausage has rendered its fat as well

deadly and yummy hehe

quick brekky

Tamales con Guindillas Pequenas y Especias

Tamales with Chillies and Herbs

A tamale is a Mexican steam-cooked corn dough wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves, with or without a filling. The filling can sweet or savory. This is considered a traditional dish, (so I hope that I didn't screw this one up.)

A bag of masa lista or masa harina (maize corn meal/corn flour) was also one of the items picked up from the previous visit to the Spanish store.

This same masa is used for the tortillas but I figured I'd start with this recipe picked up from Mexican Cantina Cooking, a $10 spanish cookbook randomly picked up from Borders quite some time ago :)

corn husks soaked in warm water for around 30 minutes

it's supposed to look like that!

The tamales dough is made of

125g softened butter

600g masa harina

3 cups of chicken stock

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Beat the butter until light and creamy. In another bowl mix the masa lista, baking powder and salt with the stock. Mix the butter to the masa and beat until the mixture forms a smooth dough. To check if the dough is ready, drop a little bit of it in a bowl of cold water and it should float, otherwise the dough needs to be 'beaten a bit more' :)

The filling (chillies and herbs)

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

3 green chilies (roasted, seeded and chopped - but I was lazy so I just chopped fresh ones!)

1 red bell chili

2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

a drizzle of olive oil

(the recipe also called for marjoram and some creme fraiche but i didn't have some at hand, so i just skipped it!)

Heat oil in a pan and fry onion and garlic until golden brown. Add chilies, salt and pepper, until chili is wilted. Set aside.

To assemble

Pat corn husks dry, place around 2 tbsps of the dough in the middle of the husk and flatten it. Add a tablespoon of the filling on to the dough. Take another tablespoon of the tamale dough, flatten it again ensuring it covers the filling completely. Fold the corn leaf over the parcel, fold another corn leaf around it in the opposite direction and tie with kitchen string.

(yeah big slices of chili. too lazy to mince!)

Steam for around 30-45 minutes or until completely cooked (when the dough pulls away from the corn husk).

Serve hot!

Parma Grandeoso

Remember the Albion Hotel and that slight mention of ParmaRama night? Well almost a year after that post it just so happened that the whole gang had mustered enough motivation to go out for Parma Night - except it's not just for your ordinary parma, but for the Grandeoso Challenge.

The Grandeoso is a serving of double parma with chips and salad.

Doesn't sound intimidating at all, until you sit there and they serve it to you.

try this on for size

This is not for the faint-hearted, small-stomached, chicken-allergic person.

notice there are two layers about 1.5cm each.

chips are underneath.

the fork shown is your proper-sized fork (ehm, standard restaurant fork size)

To sign up for this challenge is to have the determination of a 45 year old virgin going to a nightclub to get lucky (or just succumbing to peer pressure perhaps!). Shell out $25 and a pint if you're brave (or crazy) enough!

To guys, this could appear to be not a problem at all, but statistically speaking, out of the gang, there was a 50% success rate (or at least of the known 'contestants').

Check out the Hall of Fame and other details here

Mangga at Bagoong (Mango and Shrimp Paste)

One of the things that could make any Filipino mouth water is the mere mention of mangga at bagoong (bah-goh-ong). The mango referred to in this case is green mangoes, which go perfectly well with the fermented shrimp paste, particularly bagoong alamang.

Barrio Fiesta is a famous Filipino restaurant and this is their blend of bagoong alamang - quite yummy, really... obviously it is export quality ('crevettes' is French for shrimp, we typically don't use that term in the Phils!)

available in Asian shops!

The Philippine bagoong alamang is a slightly 'wet' or moist version of the Indonesian terasi (trassi) or the Malaysian belacan (be-lah-chan) all of which refer to fermented shrimps. The pinoy version is typically made of small (really tiny) shrimps, quite 'chunkier' and 'wetter' in appearance compared to its Indonesian counterpart terasi, which is sold in compact blocks - one can either scrape or cut some off to use, whereas the Pinoy alamang may be spooned or dolloped.

Colors also vary depending on the grade - I remember as a kid we'd go to the market and head towards a pink mountain of 'fresh' bagoong alamang and buying off a couple of pesos worth. This is then used to add a different depth of saltiness to a dish to be used instead of plain salt, or just sauteed with oil, garlic, onions and a bit of white vinegar until the color becomes a deep dark brownish red and then served with ... green mangoes! The dark colored variety can of course be store-bought.

afternoon snack!

in this case the skin was not peeled off the fruit because the green mango is still quite 'young' - so the skin would be quite crispy at this point

(how can you tell - one way would be to feel the skin as it would be a bit 'thin' and can easily be pierced by your fingernails)

Bagoong is also usually served on the side of a dish called Kare-Kare (kah-reh kah-reh), a stew usually made of oxtail or tripe and veggies in peanut sauce.

More details on bagoong here if you want to know more!

Paella

In my previous post I had mentioned about going to the Spanish store in search of a caldero – a paella pan – for my paella experiment. Here is the result of this Spanish alchemy.

I was meaning to go for the ‘authentic Paella Valenciana’ recipe which is primarily chicken and rabbit meat, but because a more famous dish ordered in Spanish restaurants include a wonderful array of seafood such as mussels, prawns and clams, I figured it would be disappointing from a guest’s perspective if Sunday Paella didn’t have any crustaceans in it. Hence this recipe was revised a bit to add a couple of prawns and mussels to chicken and rabbit pieces, simmered in chicken stock flavored with saffron.

The recipe was pretty much based on this , with just the addition of the seafood around 15 minutes before the heat was turned off, just thought that since the mussels and prawns were not completely submerged it may take a bit longer to cook them. I also pounded the saffron with salt (I saw it on TV!) before adding it to the mix.

bubbling away

finished product

I used Calasparra rice (a bit expensive but well worth it!) and the pan is an investment and is good for 6 servings.

The paella was pretty tasty and will definitely do more of these to get the hang of the proportions of the water/stock and the rice.

Tips that I picked up from researching prior to making this dish :

- NEVER stir the rice after you've added it in

- Let it sit/rest for around 10 minutes before serving

- It is best to cook it in an open fire rather than an electric stove to ensure better, even heat distribution. Unfortunately this is my constraint. Will probably try it over the bbq next time!

- The perfect paella has a soccarat - from the verb socarrar, which means to toast lightly - a crust of rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan. (tutong in tagalog!)

One thing is for sure - it was tastier the next day!

Cake, the Savory Kind

So. One day officemate sends me a link for a meatcake, and found myself thinking, yeah, I can do that! Besides, muffins and (some) breads were beginning to be a bit monotonous so why not do something new? This was the perfect opportunity.

Inspired by Black Widow Bakery's meat cake, here it is :

my version of a meat cake

This 'cake' was made with :

1 kg veal mince, spiced with

(about) 1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

sprinkling of paprika

salt and pepper to taste

3 eggs

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 onion minced and 4 cloves garlic cooked until the onions are translucent in a bit of olive oil

All mixed together by hand and baked for about 50 min in a 180C oven in a circular 9" baking tin.

The 'icing' was made of 20 small (really quite small) potatoes (well they were the ones I had so might as well use them!), boiled with skin on until cooked through, then the skin is discarded and then mashed with a knob of butter and a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper.

After reading the Black Widow's post obviously the key was getting the texture and consistency right - a mash too sticky may be a bit too hard to handle, and a 'meatloaf' too wet may not hold together. I was a bit lucky that the stuff held their shape!

I also made a thick tomato sauce made of 1 tin of whole tomatoes, 2 teaspoons tomato paste, half an onion and 3 cloves garlic. Figured since the meatloaf could be a bit 'dry' the tomato sauce would give it a bit more moisture.

So when the meatloaf was cooked through, it was left to cool for a bit and using a carving knife (which was long enough to assure me that at least i would cut through midway without completely destroying it), I divided the 'meatloaf' into two. (If I had 2 baking tins of the same size that would have probably saved me the trouble).

Then the tomato sauce was sandwiched in between.

yes, like a giant burger

The mashed potatoes were then slathered on to cover this beast of a burger using a palette knife. I was getting a bit more excited at this stage :)

And to make it pretty, the rest of the mashed potatoes were placed in a piping bag and I just played around with the nozzles. The basic border was put in (and the beauty of these mashed potatoes is that if you did it wrong you can pick it up and try again hehe). Then there was this huge blank space in the middle - if it was someone's birthday I would have just scribbled "Happy Birthday" and then, done! BUT! It wasn't someone's birthday, so had to think again of how to decorate the meat cake.

the bunny rabbits are made with black olives

a trick I picked up from Jacques Pepin's book

fortunately the thought occured to me, primarily out of desperation as my hands were getting tired squeezing the piping bag hehehe

the flowers were suggested by my better half (the reason why he is BETTER)

picked up from the rosemary bush in the garden

the 'trees' were parsley - eventually they wilted though, so had to trim the 'stem'

a couple of black pepper corns to serve as 'pebbles' or 'rocks'

(or rabbit poo)!

and the 'orange' colored mashed potatoes were mixed with

a dollop of ketchup (yes tomato sauce) and a bit of american mustard.

The green bits are frozen peas nuked in the microwave with a bit of water for a couple of minutes.

And that was my creative outburst for the day.

Total elapsed time to do this was 3.5 hours (including prep time, baking time, thinking about what to do next, making a a spicy chocolate brownie, messing around, kitchen clean up and a couple of cups of coffee - not too bad for a lazy Sunday morning!)

Chipotle Chocolate Brownies

This weekend's treat was a taste of Spain through a trip to Casa Iberica at Fitzroy. They sell all the wonderful things that Spain or South America has to offer... it was love at first sight.

The main aim was to get that paella pan (caldero) but who would not wander beyond the shopping list after seeing all sorts of other things - especially dried chillies. And not just ordinary chilies, but ancho and chipotle chilies - for someone who likes it HOT this is an extremely wonderful find.

delightful!

So, since the paella recipe didn't really require these chilies, had to find an excuse to use it. For dessert perhaps? I did have my eye on a spicy brownie recipe so the best bet was Chipotle (all time favorite) made its way to be dry fried and blitzed in a spice grinder.

Chipotle is a fully ripened and smoked jalapeno - and there's something about how they smoke this thing that makes it smell heavenly, and have such deep flavor. This recipe is a combination of a few of my favorite things :) The challenge is to add the spice without overpowering the flavors of chocolate, which still remains to be the star of this show (or so I say to myself).

Spicy Chipotle Brownies

250g dark chocolate melted with 100g butter

1 cup plain flour sifted

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon ground dried chipotle chilies

1 teaspoon ground cloves

pinch of salt

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sultanas soaked in (a couple of shots of) tequila (in keeping with the Spanish theme)

1/2 cup almonds, bashed (or roughly chopped, or "coarsely ground") :p

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie (or in the microwave, if preferred). Meanwhile, mix the flour with the spices and salt in a separate bowl, and set aside. Whisk eggs with sugar until sugar has melted and well incorporated, and add to the melted chocolate. Combine wet and dry ingredients, fold in sultanas (remove excess tequila) and almonds. Place in a square (or rectangular) brownie tin lined with foil and bake in a 180C pre-heated oven for around 15-20 minutes - don't overbake or it will become too dry.

Serve with a sprinkling of icing sugar with a dash of the chipotle powder.

WHB Roundup

Check out the fantastic dishes whipped up for this week's WHB - roundup here

Weekend Herb Blogging : Black Beans

A recent trip to the Asian store has left me armed with a typical ingredient in Chinese cooking, black beans.

Not to be confused with the black beans used in Latin American cooking (black turtle beans), this is actually salted soybeans with a slight pungent smell and a distinctive salty-bitter-sweet flavor.

There are heaps of varieties of black bean sauces available in the local supermarket, but for $1.30, this 375g pack of black beans is a real tasty bargain that would go a long way since you won't have to use a lot per dish, like for this one...

3 teaspoons black beans

2 teaspoons chinkiang (black rice) vinegar

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon palm sugar

1/3 cup water (or stock if you have some handy)

1 teaspoon corn starch

Mix above ingredients together and slightly mash the black beans to release more flavor.

This will be used as sauce for a quick beef stir fry using

300g rump steak, sliced into thin strips

handful of enoki mushrooms (they were there in the fridge, so might as well add it! just chop off roots)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 inch ginger, minced

5 spring onions, chopped (separate the white part from the greens)

3 birds eye chili (decrease if you dont want it hot)

1 red chili, sliced, for garnish

1 (or 2) tbsp peanut oil

a bit of fungi to soak up that nice black sauce!

Swirl some peanut oil into a really hot wok and toss in garlic, ginger, birds eye chili and the white spring onions. Stir fry for a couple of seconds, then add in the beef, and the mushrooms (cook beef to your liking, I prefer it a bit medium rare) , then give the black bean mixture a quick stir and pour on to the beef. Let bubble a bit until the sauce has slightly thickened and looks glossy.

Serve on steamed rice and garnish with the red chili and the greens from the spring onions.

This is my entry to the Weekend Herb Blogging #193 (my first time to join this very interesting event!), organized and hosted by Haalo of Cook Almost Anything at Least Once.