Paper Chef #44

"So many choices!!!!"
That was my first reaction to reading the ingredients for this months paper chef. The first three ingredients as selected by Deeba from Passionate about Baking were Ricotta, Ginger, and Chocolate. Pretty easy so far, but the fourth ingredient was actually a theme: Autumn. Hmmm might be Autumn on the wrong side of the world but we're heading into spring here, so its a bit hard to cook out of season but I tried.
The ingredients lend themselves to a dessert type dish. I did briefly think of doing something savoury with them, possibly ginger ricotta fritters with a chili chocolate sauce. Chili & chocolate go well together, try it sometime if you haven't already.
But I scuttled that idea and went with a sweet instead.
Ricotta fritters with a ginger chocolate sauce? Non!
Chocolate cannoli filled with ginger ricotta? Hmm maybe next time.
With time running out I settled for a Ginger Cheesecake with a Chocolate base.
The ginger I used was Baby Stem Ginger in syrup from an Australian company Budrim Ginger.

Ginger Cheesecake with a Chocolate base
Ingredients
Base
150g chocolate biscuits, crushed
40g dark chocolate, grated
80g melted butter
Filling
600g ricotta
150g castor sugar
40g preserved ginger, chopped
Ginger, shaved chocolate & mint leaves for decoration.

Method
Mix the crushed biscuits, chocolate & butter and press into the bottom of the dish. I used individual dishes, but the choice is yours.
Place in the fridge to set.
Beat the ricotta and sugar with a mixer until smooth. You can pass the ricotta through a tamis for a really smooth mixture if you wanted to.
Add the chopped ginger, more or less depending on taste and stir through the mixture.
Spoon into your prepared dish, smooth off the top, cover & refrigerate until ready to serve.
Decorate with shaved chocolate, ginger & mint leaves.

And the Autumn theme? The shaved chocolate represents the dried twigs & crushed fallen leaves, with a little sprout to celebrate Spring..........

Paper Chef #43

As soon as I had read this month's ingredients for the Paper Chef (number 43!) i knew what I was going to make. A sweet spicy couscous. But Paul suggested a Tagine! Actually his idea was better so I went with it.
The ingredients selected by Silejeng of Javaholic were: couscous, fresh chilies, rosemary and her selection of peaches.
A Tagine is a slow cooked, North African dish that is braised at a low temperature. From what I have read there is no set guidelines as to what goes into a Tagine.
But they all do contain a mixture of herbs and spices that produce a very aromatic & tasty dish.
I decided to use pork even though its not a "traditional" North African meat, as it goes well with peaches, chili & other herbs & spices.
I've used dried peaches as fresh peaches aren't available (apparently its winter in Melbourne therefore the wrong season for stone fruits) and that dried fruit hold their shape better & release a more concentrated flavour to the dish.
Ive also used a combination of both fresh & dried Chili in the dish, Dried for the kick & fresh for the subtle flavour.
Couscous is another north African staple, I think of couscous as a "filler" to which you add the flavours and textures you want.
In this instance I've added dried peach, dried mint & pistachio nuts. Its all about the flavour & texture.

Pork Tangine with Peaches
Ingredients
For the Tagine
500g pork neck, cubed
1 small red chili, seeded & finely sliced
1/2 red capsicum, peeled & cut into strips
1/2 onion, cut into wedges
1 clove garlic, cut into quarters
6 cherry tomatoes, peeled
6 dried peaches roughly diced
1/4 tsp dried chili
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground ginger
salt to season
1/4 cup red wine
1/4 cup stock
1/4 cup water
1 sprig Rosemary
Coriander

For the Couscous
100g couscous
100ml stock
1 tbls oil
1/2 tsp dried mint
10g pistachio slivers
1 dried peaches, finely diced
1 tbls butter

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 160c
Place the pork, onion chili, capsicum, garlic & peaches into a lidded oven proof dish.
Sprinkle all the dried spices over
Toss the ingredients to coat them in the spices
Add the tomatoes, rosemary & liquids
Cover and put into the oven for about 2 hrs

When the tagine is almost done, start the couscous.
Bring the stock & oil to the boil in a lidded sauce pan & remove from the heat.
Add the couscous stirring until it start to thicken & cover.for 10 minutes
Add the butter & fluff with a fork & then add the remaining ingredients & toss.
Sprinkle the coriander over the tagine and serve.

Paper Chef non-entry

Well it was Paper Chef time the weekend just past.
We had some wonderful ingredients selected by last month's winner Kristina of Former Chef
they were:
Almonds
Chicken
Corn
& her selection of: Fish Sauce.
My initial idea was a type of Chicken Kiev dish, but with an almond butter center seasoned with Fish Sauce and rolled in polenta. But I was talked out of this & into a Korean style Chicken & Corn soup with chicken, prawn & almond dumplings.
Good idea, bad execution. :(
Dumplings were delicate in flavour but became overwhelmed by the soup which tasted fine while cooking but ended up way too rich. And to cap it all off the photo's were bad.
If that wasn't bad enough for the first time ever,I even managed to stuff up a Creme Anglaise later that day!

The stars must have been wrong that day......

Paper Chef #37

This month the paper chef dished up some interesting ingredients complements of Terry from Taste Adventures.

Three random ingredients from the list:

liver (calves liver to be precise);

cheese;

oregano;

and her choice of: chestnuts
Interesting.
The mind went into overdrive. What to do?!? How to combine them into a dish & hopefully eatable.
First up we had to get the ingredients. So off to the market we went, and suffered... Saturday turned out to be the hottest day on record in Melbourne hitting a top of 46.4c. This was a seriously hot day. If you have been following the news then you will know of the tragic bush fires that occurred. Luckily none of my family or friends were in the areas that were affected.
Back to the PC. And calves livers. 6 butchers later not a calves liver to be found. Time to invoke the substitute clause - chicken livers. All other ingredients were found easily. And then to decide what to make....
In the end I decided to make a ravioli dish, stuffed with liver, chestnut & Parmesan, and a oregano butter sauce.

Ingredients
200g cleaned liver
100g chopped chestnuts
1/4 medium onion finely chopped
20g grated Parmesan
1/4tsp fine orange rind
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp ground black pepper
1/4tsp dried oregano
40g butter
Fresh pasta sheets (recipe here)
1 tbls roughly chopped fresh oregano
1/4tsp fresh thyme
30ml Brandy (optional)
Grated Parmesan to finish

Method
Melt 10g of the butter in a fry pan and add the onion, dried oregano & orange rind
When the onion is soft add the livers and quickly brown - do not over cook!
Remove from the heat and place in a bowl to cool slightly
Roughly chop the livers and return to the bowl
Add the Parmesan and chestnuts and combine thoroughly
Spoon about a heaped tsp onto the pasta sheets and create your ravioli.
When ready to cook the ravioli, melt the remaining butter in a pan. While the butter is melting cook the ravioli in boiling salted water.
Add the fresh oregano and thyme to the melted butter and allow to fry slightly.
At this point you can add the warmed brandy & flame it
Drain the ravioli, add to the melted butter and toss.
Serve immediately with freshly grated Parmesan.

Paper Chef 36 Winner!

This was an interesting Paper Chef round!

While there may only have bee four entries, they were all very different, very unique, and very good. Which means judging a winner was very difficult.
As last month's winner I had the privilege of selecting three random ingredients from the nominated list, and a fourth of my own selection. After seeing what the random generator produced as the first three ingredients (Vanilla Pod, Dried Chili, & Barley) I thought I'd play it safe and chose what I hoped was a fairly neutral ingredient, Beef.

With those ingredients in mind, let me introduce the entries:
The first entry is Terry of Taste Adventures who created a Pepper Crusted London Broil With Chili-Vanilla Balsamic Cream and Chili-Avocado Barley Pilaf.

Next up is Murasaki of Samurai Viking Cuisine, she came up with Barley Beef Spring Rolls with Cocoa Chili Vanilla Sauce .

The third entry is from Ilva of Lucullian Delights with her Barley and Chili Coated Beef Dice on a Barley and Vanilla Couscous Cake.

And finally there was my entry Chili Beef with Barley (obviously I can only take part in the People's Choice).

Like I said, four very different entries, which is part of the fun & pleasure of the Paper Chef - letting your mind run wild in the kitchen.

So who is the winner?
I'll start with the People's Choice: Murasaki of Samurai Viking Cuisine with her Barley Beef Spring Rolls with Cocoa Chili Vanilla Sauce . Congratulations!

And my choice as winner of Paper Chef 36 is:
I'd like to say it was a three way tie, but i can't so congratulations to Terry of Taste Adventures with her Pepper Crusted London Broil With Chili-Vanilla Balsamic Cream and Chili-Avocado Barley Pilaf. It was the Chili-Vanilla Balsamic Cream that grabbed my attention.
So don't be scared, be creative & see what you can create for the next Paper Chef.