Ginger

Fresh ginger anyone?


One of the stalls at the Victoria Markets had an abundance of fresh ginger....

Purple Gnocchi with Tomato, Rocket & Crispy Bacon

Purple Congo - its a variety of potato that has a dark blue skin & dark blue flesh. I'd always been curious if the colour would remain after cooking. Well it does (see previous post). Being a floury type of potato the Purple Congo is ideal for gnocchi and the colour would add another dimension to any dish, so if you can find some try them!

Ingredients:
Gnocchi
500g Purple Congo potatoes, peeled
150g plain flour
1/2 beaten egg
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Sauce
1x 400g can tomatoes
100g Wild rocket, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 stp dried chili flakes
1/4 cup red wine
2 tbls olive oil
Pinch sugar
Salt
Pepper
Sprig thyme
Fresh grated Parmesan to serve
Crispy Bacon
2 rashes bacon roughly diced
Sprig Rosemary
1 tbls goose fat

Method:
Cut the potato into equal sized pieces & place into a steamer.
Steam until just cooked
Pass through a fine mouli or potato ricer & allow to cool
Add egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg & flour & combine to form a dough.
Taste for seasoning & adjust.
Rollout into a long sausage shape & cut into 2cm (1") pillows
Set aside until needed

Add goose fat, bacon & rosemary sprig to a fry pan & gently cook over low heat, stiring occasionally until bacon is crisp
Drain, remove Rosemary sprig, & scatter bacon over paper towel to absorb excess fat
Heat the oil in a saucepan & add onion, garlic & dried chili
Sweat until the onion is tender
Add thyme sprig & tomatoes, sugar, & red wine & simmer
Season to taste
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil & add salt
Preheat oven to 200c & warm a heatproof serving dish in the oven with a large knob of butter
Cook gnocchi in batches removing from the water when they rise to the surface.
Place the cooked gnocchi into the heated dish, toss in the melted butter & return to the oven while the next batch is being cooked.
Add the chopped rocket to the sauce & stir in until just wilted
Spoon the sauce over the gnocchi & sprinkle with the crispy bacon
Serve with freshly grated Parmesan

Purple & Green...

Just a very quick post..
I steamed some Purple Congo potatoes, & yes the flesh remained a nice purple colour. But what amazed me was the colour of the water....
It had turned green!
Possibly the coloured starchy liquid from the potatoes had reacted with the stainless steel?

Street Art

There is always a debate as to what is considered "art".

To some people street art is vandalism. When it ruins property and that property needs to be replaces or repaired, yes that is vandalism. But if it's a blank wall, shows some style & technique,  and nothing else is damaged is it still vandalism?

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 Challenge

This months paper chef ingredients were all surprising complimentary. The lovely Alison from Local Lemons selected them on a very unusual randomiser :) You'll have to checkout her blog to see how she chose them.
Her random ingredients were: asparagus, artichoke, tuna, and her final selection of vodka.
All the ingredients were readily available, especially the vodka (its always in the freezer at our place) and its starting on artichoke season.
My local fishmonger always has fresh sashimi grade tuna available and while its not asparagus season, thanks to climate controlled greenhouses its always available fresh.
So what to make? I decided on vodka cured tuna on a bed of asparagus, artichoke and jicama. The last ingredient I came across at the market. Its a Mexican yam with a flavour and texture similar waterchestnut or nashi, and I decided that it would make a nice contrast to the other ingredients. The cured tuna becomes very tender & delicate with a slightly translucent quality. Even Paul, who's not a fan of raw fish loved it.

Ingredients:
1 tbls coarse salt flakes
1 tbls caster sugar
1 tbls vodka (more if you feel in need of a shot for yourself)
1 tbls coarsely chopped dill
1 clove crushed garlic
200g fresh tuna fillet
4 fresh artichoke, prepared & halved
12 fresh asparagus spears
Fresh jicama, finely julienned
Fresh fennel finely slices
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Cream
Salt
Pepper

Method
Mix the salt sugar vodka garlic & dill in a bowl and spread all over the tuna fillet.
Place the fillet on a plate and pour any remaining mixture over it.
Cover with cling film pressing down on the tuna making sure its cover with the film.
Place another plate or board on the tuna and weigh it down with a weight.
Leave overnight or 24hr in the fridge to cure.
Steam the asparagus & allow to cool to room temp.
Make a simple dressing of the lemon juice, olive oil & cream and season to taste.
Toss the jicama, fennel, asparagus and artichokes in the dressing and plate.
Remove the cure tuna from the fridge and scrape off any dill or garlic.
Very thinly slice the tuna with a very sharp knife.
Arrange on a plate to your liking and serve.

Potatoes

A few days ago, I was rummaging around in the cupboard for some potatoes for a mash that I was making, and was surprised by the variety that seems to have mysteriously accrued in the cupboard.

The dark purple (almost black) skinned variety are called Purple Congo. They have a floury texture and a purple flesh. Apparently they make great Gnocchi, so guess what I will be making this weekend....

The other varieties are (if I remember correctly) Kipfler, Pink Eye, Desiree, Toolangi Delight, & Dutch Cream. They all have different characteristics, flesh colour, texture, & even flavour. And there are alot more varieties out there!

Pizza

There's a new Pizza store that's just opened near us in Carlisle St called The Green Light.
I haven't sampled their pizzas yet, but if this chalkboard special is anything to go by it could be very interesting...

Street Art

Modern technology.

Wondering the streets of Melbourne.

See something interesting?

Take a photo with the trusty mobile phone...

Another Paper Chef entery...

I think I'm going through an un-motivated cooking stage as looking back through my blog, the Paper Chef entries seem to be the only recipes that I'm posting.
This month's ingredients were selected by Bron from Bron Marshall with a some help from her little fairies.
They selected: Prosciutto, Floury Potatoes, Thyme, and (just for something different) a theme of Mother’s Day for the fourth ingredient.
No stuffing around with wild ideas for this one, I went with my first thought: Gnocchi, with herbed butter and crispy fried prosciutto. And the Mother's Day theme? Flowers, vivid blue Rosemary flowers, both colourful & eatable. If you're looking at the photo you maybe wondering what the black specks are. Well my partner Paul suggested adding some crushed dried truffle to the butter sauce. We had a pack of them sitting in the pantry & they hadn't been used for anything as yet.
The recipe for the gnocchi can be found here. It was my first ever blog post which I had initially posted on Paul's now closed blog Eat Me! which I moved onto here when I started Spikey Mikeys.

Ingredients:
1 portion gnocchi
100g unsalted butter
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves
Rosemary flowers
5-6 fresh sage leaves
scraping fresh nutmeg
1 tsp dried truffle, crushed (optional)
salt
fresh ground black pepper
100g prosciutto
Olive oil
Fresh grated Parmesan

Method:
Fry the prosciutto in a little olive oil till it nice & crispy.
Remove & place on paper towels & allow to drain of any excess oil.
Melt the butter of a low heat & add thyme, rosemary, nutmeg & crushed truffles and allow to gently infuse.
Cook the gnocchi as instructed.
Gently toss the gnocchi with the butter sauce and place into a serving dish.
Crumble the crispy prosciutto over the top of the gnocchi.
Sprinkle with the rosemary flowers and serve with the grated Parmesan.

Happy Mother's Day Mum!!! x