Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas

In preparing this dish of Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas, my mind flew back to the time I visited Mexico many years ago. It was an excursion during a tour of the USA, and we did a day trip to Tijuana, from San Diego.

I honestly can’t remember what we ate, probably something in a café – we did eat a lot of ‘soup and salad’ while in the US, and I recall drinking some 7UP in Tijuana. I was pretty excited about the duty-free shopping there and picked up some Estee Lauder perfume (!!!) because, at the time, the Aussie dollar was hopeless against the greenback, so Mexico was fairly cheap in comparison. I also bought some little handcrafted dolls from a street vendor, as souvenirs.

Well, Tijuana was hot and dry and a bit grimy, and it was a relief to get back onto our pink tour bus/coach for the journey back. The most exciting part of the trip was having the coach searched at the border, with the armed guards looking at the underside of the bus and in the hold for any stowaways. When they realised it was just a bus full of gawking, English-speaking tourists, they lost interest and waved us through without even checking our passports. So much for any hoped-for intrigue, because there was none, so it was a rather sanitised visit, as far as I was concerned.

This recipe can also be made in a pan on the stove – just simmer for 1½ hours and you too can experience the flavours (though slightly restrained) of Mexico.

Mexican Pulled Pork

serves 4

Ingredients

2 tblsp olive oil

500g piece pork scotch fillet

2 medium brown onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tblsp ground cumin

2 dried bay leaves

400g can diced tomatoes

Flour tortillas or rice

Avocado, green chilli and lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the pork to a slow cooker.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the onion, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin and bay leaves and cook for another 1 minute.

3. Stir in the tomatoes plus ½ cup of cold water. Season with salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.

4. Pour the tomato mixture over the pork in the slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 hours.

5. When ready to serve, remove the pork from the cooker and shred the meat using 2 forks.

6. Heat the tortillas, if using, and top with the pork and some of the tomato sauce. Serve with sliced chilli and lemon wedges. Alternatively, serve the pork and sauce with rice.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients, including tomatoes, onion, cumin, bay leaves and pork, and a lime, green chilli and avocado for later.

The pork is shredded with forks ('pulled') after it's cooked, and just look at that luscious meat.

Serve the pork and its sauce on warmed flour tortillas with the chilli and lime.

The avocado ended up being hard as a rock, so I didn't use it in the end and replaced it with some salad leaves.

Make like Speedy Gonzales (who is from Guadalajara, Mexico) to get your hands on this delicious dish.

Berry nice: mini strawberry tarts

There has been a young guy selling strawberries on the local main street in the past couple of weeks, a pallet of rather healthy-looking berries laid out on the footpath in front of him as he greets passers-by. The strawberries are quite tasty, though the price is more than the nearby supermarket charges.

I had to know, is it really strawberry season, for the prices to be fairly low and the fruit so plentiful? So I looked up my culinary encyclopaedia (Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion). It says that strawberries are of the genus Fragaria, which is a member of the rose family. They are harvested in southern Australia during summer, and in Queensland (northern Australia) during winter. The peak season is September to January (spring to mid-summer here). And, get this, “some berries appearing in the Southern states during winter may not be worth eating”.

Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. However, the strawberries around at the moment all seem pretty good, and very reasonably priced. Good enough motive to dig in and enjoy the bounty. And do I have a recipe for you (or, rather, Donna Hay does).

Mini strawberry tarts

makes 6

Ingredients

30g butter

¼ cup caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp water

250g strawberries, hulled and halved

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Method

1. Place the butter, sugar, vanilla and water into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring while the sugar dissolves, then cook for another 2 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Lightly grease six holes of a 1/3-cup muffin tin. Place the strawberries in the holes, then spoon over the butter/sugar syrup.

3. Cut rounds of puff pastry to fit over the muffin holes, then put the pastry over the strawberries, pushing in the edges to cover the strawberries.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden. To serve, carefully use a spoon to remove the tarts from the tin (be careful, they’re hot!). Tarts are best eaten while still warm.

recipe adapted from donna hay (dec/jan 2012)

Lovely strawberries.

Place the strawbs into a muffin tray, then cover with caramel and puff pastry.

Gorgeous red tarts, coveted by the queen of hearts.

Check out the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop: Berry Nice to Meet You!

Mr Wong, Sydney

Who hasn't realised that the new Merivale restaurant, Mr Wong, has arrived?

They certainly know how to build up the excitement, with the Merivale marketing machine in overdrive with the tweets and the emails and goodness knows what else announcing the imminent opening of star chef Dan Hong's latest venture.

There was a tweet last week saying that the restaurant, in Bridge Lane, Sydney, was a day early in its prep and was opening right now! So when we went there for lunch on Saturday, it had been going off for only two and a bit days. You wouldn't know it, though, it already runs like a well-(sesame)-oiled machine.

Entrance to the restaurant. It is in the former Tank nightclub site, on the lower ground floor of the Establishment complex in George Street. Lots of heavy wooden beams, exposed pipes, open kitchens.

Dan Hong in da kitchen.

The menu is mainly nouvelle Cantonese. The food is fabulous.

There were 2 of us for lunch, with its dim sum menu. This is what we had.

Warning: Lots of pictures and a corny advert at the end.

This is chicken and jellyfish salad with pig's ear ($14).

Just like the salads in Chinatown, with smooth poached chicken and crunchy jellyfish and pig's ear in sesame oil. Lots of coriander (unfortunately for me, the coriander-hater).

Foie gras prawn toast ($12) was piping hot, with fresh oil used to fry the prawn on bread. The subtle but the unmistakeable flavour of foie gras takes this to another level.

Sichuan steak tartare ($18) had sweet-tasting undertones and a chilli oil kick, and the raw steak was nicely tender. Topped with fried garlic slices and served with fried crispbread (like pappadums) and refreshing cucumber slices.

Abalone chicken shumai ($9.80) had tiny, tender abalone atop chicken mince. Intense flavour in the chicken, maybe from shiitake mushrooms. Wish they served this at normal yum cha places.

There is a roast meat section on the menu, and freshly roasted ducks and chickens hanging in the kitchen. Out the back are dozens of denuded raw ducks ready for their tanning treatment.

Those doors (above right) are for the toilets.

We only ordered one main, Salt and Pepper Calamari ($27).

Again, good frying technique results in tender calamari coated in lots of salt, pepper and spices such as star anise. Quite salty, but moreish.

Tsingtao beer ($9) and silver jasmine tea ($2 per person).

I must say that this was the most fragrant, beautiful jasmine tea I've had in a restaurant. The waitstaff don't seem to recognise the international signal of teapot-refilling-needed, though (lid askew on the pot).

The only criteria I had for ordering the other dishes was, "Must leave room for dessert".

Mr Wong's deep-fried ice cream with butterscotch sauce ($14) was eagerly awaited - and quickly eaten.

Fresh cake crumbs around the ice cream, but for me, the butterscotch sauce was to die for. 

I ordered the roast white chocolate ice cream with yuzu curd, longans and raspberries ($14).

One word: OMG!

The citrusy yuzu curd was the perfect foil to the smooth ice cream. There was also some biscuit crumbs in there, making the dish like a deconstructed something. 

In case you hadn't noticed, I really, really like Mr Wong. Excellent food, wonderful atmosphere.

The waitstaff are dressed like stereotypical French waiters, with black waistcoats and long white aprons. The open kitchens are filled with industrious workers who are surprisingly quiet, and it's the diners who are the noisy ones as they enjoy their meal and each other's company. It's probably not the type of place your traditional Chinese parents might enjoy (the prices!), but like Red Lantern on Riley, it's a Gen X-Y-Z version of what the parents like.

By the way, I'm definitely showing my age, but do you remember that ad from the 80s? It went like this:

Scene: A group of Aussie tourists in Hong Kong with their tour guide

Tourist: Mr Wong! Mr Wong! 

Mr Wong: What is it?

Tourist: I've lost all my traveller's cheques!

Mr Wong: Ohhh. What kind were they?

Tourist: American Express...

Mr Wong: Ahhh, they have an office right here in Hong Kong!

Smiles and nods all round.

And that's how this new Mr Wong makes you feel, all happy that everything is right in the foodie world.

Mr Wong is at 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney (enter via Pitt St or Bridge St).

web: http://merivale.com.au/mrwong/

ph: 02 9240 3000

Unboring Brussels sprouts and lentils

I just realised how booorrrring the title of this post sounds.

Brussels Sprouts (erk!)

Lentils (double-erk!!)

 But please don’t change the channel just yet. This is a surprisingly tasty little dish that, when served with something meaty – like roast lamb, maybe? – will make you feel that being vegetarian might not be so bad after all. You’d just need to give up roast lamb.

Hope you like it anyway. I did, and wasn’t bored at all!

Brussels sprouts and lentils

serves 4 as a side

Ingredients

¼ cup Puy lentils, rinsed and drained

500g (1 lb) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

3 tblsp butter

1 tblsp olive oil

2 eschalots, sliced

Dressing:

1 tblsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tblsp olive oil

Method

1. For the lentils: place the lentils in a small saucepan with 2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

2. For the Brussels sprouts: bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the sprouts for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat the butter and olive oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add eschalots and cook for 5 minutes until softened and browned. Add Brussels sprouts and cook for 5 more minutes, until golden.

4. For the dressing: whisk the dressing ingredients together with salt and pepper.

5. To serve: combike the sprouts and eschalots together with the lentils in a bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss together.

recipe from Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, lentils and eschalots

The Brussels sprouts are blanched in boiling water before being tossed in a hot frying pan

Golden Brussels sprouts and Puy lentils - a vegetarian delight (except for the butter)!

Apple and Pear Pies beware the hungry cat

Remember how I received this fabulous Mystery Box? Well, here's something else I made with the ingredients, although how the final product ended up also became a Mystery.

These little Apple and Pear Pies are an irresistible combination of delicious and adorable. While they are a fiddly to make - lots of rolling of pastry and waiting for it to chill - the end result will give you that feeling of being a domestic goddess. That's how I felt, at least, when the pies came out of the oven. 

Some time was spent admiring these golden morsels (does that sound like Nigella or what??) before we tucked in and ate a couple of them for afternoon tea. A few more were had for dessert (with whipped cream!).  A single pie remained, which I had dibs on. So, wrapped in foil, it waited for me to take the next day. 
Until *da-Da-DAH!* it became the focus of "The Mystery of the Purloined Pie".


What happened next? Read on to find out...



Apple and Pear Pies
makes 12

Ingredients

2 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks

2 small apples, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm chunks (from Mystery Box)

30g unsalted butter

10 fresh dates, pitted, roughly chopped (from Mystery Box)

55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar, plus extra, to dust

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped (from Mystery Box) or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon cornflour

1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs 
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tblsp milk, to brush

Pastry

2 cups plain flour

50g ground almonds

1/4 cup caster sugar 
1/2 tsp salt

250g cold unsalted butter, chopped
1/4 cup chilled water 
  
Method

1.  For pastry: put all the pastry ingredients, except the water, in a food processor and process until the butter is incorporated and the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the chilled water and process until mixture just comes together. Divide pastry into 12 pieces, shape each into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

2.  For the filling: Peel pears, core and cut into 1.5cm pieces. Melt butter in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, add pears, apples, dates, sugar and vanilla, and cook for 5 minutes or until pears and apples are tender. Add cornflour and stir to combine and cook until very thick. Cool, then refrigerate until chilled.

3.  Roll out the pastry discs on lightly floured baking paper until 3mm thick, then cut into 11.5cm rounds. Gather scraps together and refrigerate. Grease a 12-hole (1/3-cup) muffin tin, line with pastry rounds, then refrigerate for 20 minutes. Roll out pastry scraps, cut out 12 x 7cm rounds, then refrigerate for 20 minutes.

4.  Place a heavy-based oven tray in the oven and preheat oven to 200°C.

5.  Mix the cinnamon with the breadcrumbs and spoon into the pie cases, then top with apple and pear filling. Place a pastry round on top, fold in edges to seal, then cut a slit in the top. Brush tops lightly with milk, dust with extra sugar, place pies on heated oven tray and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until golden. Cool for 20 minutes before removing from the tin.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ripe pears, crunchy apples and luscious dates make up the filling.

The pastry is shaped into discs before refrigerating.

Cut the pastry to fit into the holes of a muffin tin. Then, fill with the apple/pear/date mixture and top with a pastry hat.

These are just like mince pies in shape, but are much lighter and easier to eat, in my opinion.

There was one pie left over which I securely wrapped in aluminium foil, to be taken to work the next day for morning tea. But I forgot to take it and it was left on the kitchen benchtop.

Then this was encountered when one of us got home...

Forensics was immediately called to photograph evidence of the crime (though they forgot to adjust the camera settings, which is why the photo is a bit crappy).

After some investigation, the pie-stealing culprit was revealed. No guesses who it was.

Looks like Tabitha cat had enough of the pie after a couple of bites, but rest assured that uneaten pies will no longer be left unattended in this household!

C'est un Coq au Vin - délicieux!

 

What's your favourite cuisine? Is it one that you've grown up with, or one that you've discovered on your own?

I've always thought that my favourite was Italian, but really, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Greek, I love most of the Euro-zone cuisines that I've tried. Growing up, meals in our household were a strange hybrid of Cantonese-Australian, such as roast pork with apple sauce - and bok choy. Or sausages on the barbeque, served with tomato sauce - and lashings of boiled rice.  Come to think of it, it wasn't a meal without heaps of boiled rice...

Anyway, I mainly cook European now. And since it was Bastille Day last Saturday, I made this version of Coq au Vin (and no boiled rice).  It's a slow cooker version, and it filled the house with a heady Gallic bouquet of white wine, garlic and thyme. This recipe can also be prepared on a stove top - just brown the chicken and cook the sauce in the same casserole pan, and cook for 2 hours on a gentle simmer. Bon Appetit!

Coq au Vin

serves 4

Ingredients

1 tblsp olive oil

4 chicken marylands

20g butter

6 eschalots, peeled, halved

4 rashers bacon, trimmed, chopped

3 tsp crushed garlic

2 tbsp plain flour

1 cup dry white wine

2 cups chicken stock

1 dried bay leaf

4 fresh thyme sprigs

300g button mushrooms, halved

Method

1. Heat 1 oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken, in batches, for about 4 to 5 minutes each side, or until browned. Transfer to the bowl of a slow cooker.

2. Heat butter in the frying pan. Add eschalots and bacon. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes or until onions are soft. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 minute then add the flour. Cook, stirring for 1 more minute.

3. Add the wine and bring to the boil. Simmer for 3 minutes or until reduced by half. 

4. Pour the bacon, eschalot and wine mixture into the slow cooker. Add mushrooms, bay leaf, thyme and stock. Season with pepper and stir to combine.

5. Cook on Low setting for 6 hours.  Serve with green beans or peas and crusty bread.

Ingredients, including eschalots, mushrooms, bacon, thyme.

I used sauvignon blanc, which gives off a wonderful aroma. Skulking cat is optional.

Me, wearing a French-style stripey top because it was Bastille Day.

The browned chicken is nestled into the slow cooker with the veg and herbs on top.

After 6 hours of slow cooking, the chicken was literally falling apart, so delicious.

Served with sugar snap peas and courgette. And bread, naturellement.

Vanilla Risotto - It's a mystery to me

Q: Have you been watching season 4 of MasterChef Australia? Just how many reality television shows are there on at the moment? And is MasterChef considered ‘reality’?

A: Yes. Heaps. Maybe.

I do like MasterChef because for every so-so episode, there’s bound to be a corker soon after. And now that the finals are approaching, we can look forward to even more eliminations, recriminations and big spectacles (hello, Alice?).

Pigs might fly and do somersaults over the moon before you’ll see me on MasterChef, so I was very pleased to receive a MasterChef Mystery Box from American Express. This was so I could create something MasterCheffy at home, but without the pressure, oh the pressure, of the TV version. The Mystery Box challenge is the one where contestants have to prepare a dish using ingredients from a box of sometimes mismatched ingredients.

The mystery box I received certainly had some diverse ingredients. Tabitha cat and I pondered for a bit on what to make.

Somewhat predictably, I’ve made 2 desserts so far using the mystery Box and here’s the first one – a really deliciously creamy Vanilla Risotto. More on the other dessert to come soon.

And yes, I know that a risotto has never won any challenge on MasterChef, but that's just stupid, because taste should always trump superstition, shouldn't it?

For details on the MasterChef/American Express Mystery Box challenge, click here

Vanilla Risotto

serves 4

Ingredients

½ cup Arborio rice

3 cups milk (skim or full-fat is fine)

¼ cup caster sugar

½ split vanilla bean or ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 punnet of strawberries, washed and hulled

1 tblsp balsamic vinegar

2 tblsp mascarpone, to serve

Method

1. Place the rice, milk sugar and vanilla into a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir well, bring mixture to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the rice is tender and liquid is mostly absorbed. Remove pan from the heat (the risotto will thicken on standing).

2. Meanwhile, slice the strawberries and place in a bowl with the balsamic vinegar.

3. When the risotto is cooked, spoon into serving bowls and top with strawberries and a spoonful of mascarpone.

Leftover risotto can be stored in the fridge and served chilled.

Ingredients, including caster sugar, Arborio rice, milk, vanilla pod and strawberries.

From the Mystery Box, I used the rice, vanilla and balsamic vinegar.

Serve the risotto warm or cold for dessert, with some mascarpone and balsamic strawberries.

See my rather poor excuse for a mascarpone quenelle on the risotto.

*sigh* my MasterChef dreams will never be....

Red Lantern on Riley - birthday part deux

So the second part of the other half's birthday was actually on his birthday. Well, I wasn't going to spend it in the kitchen, so I tried to find somewhere that was not as 'special', so as to overshadow as the main birthday meal (first part was at Ocean Room, here), but fancy enough for another night out.

Enter the newly opened Red Lantern on Riley. 

So much for thinking this was just a casual, neighbourhood Vietnamese place - this is much more than that!

Very swish decor, though at night it's a bit hard to see (dim lighting).

Must have cost a pretty penny, and it's certainly beautifully turned out, with bentwood chairs and French Colonial-inspired tiles melding with old mirrors, family pictures , red lanterns(!) and Vietnamese-style screens. Lovely flower arrangements (orchids).

Not knowing what the serving sizes were like, we ordered a couple of entrees, and some mains. Plus room for dessert, of course. Here's what we had.

Goi Cuon ($19.80) – rice paper rolls with tiger prawns, free-range pork, vermicelli, herbs.  These rolls were super fresh, some of the best (and most expensive!) I've had.

Muc Rang Muoi ($25.30) – chilli salted squid with lemon and white pepper dipping sauce. The chilli squid was piping hot (freshly fried, mmm!) with a light batter, like tempura, not too spicy but incredibly moreish.

Red Lantern guys, if you're reading this, the Muc Rang Muoi was $15.30 on the menu, but we were charged $25.30. Misprint somewhere?

Bun Thit Nuong ($30.80) – chargrilled pork marinated in honey, served with mint, perilla leaves and lettuce to wrap. This dish is deemed a 'mid course' rather than a main. You take one of the soft lettuce leaves and pile on some of the luscious pork and bean sprouts together with a couple of torn herb leaves, then wrap it up and devour. This dish is simple but amazingly good.

Vit Quay ($41.80) – roasted Burrawong Pekin duck with spiced orange sauce and fennel watercress salad. Quite a few meaty duck pieces, and the salad was a refreshing complement.

We also had Rice ($3.30).

To drink – 333 beer ($9.35) and a pot of jasmine tea ($8.25). Does anyone else think these pricings are a bit strange/odd? Maybe they include carbon tax!

Dessert platter for 2 ($24.20) – coconut crème caramel, black sticky rice and sesame and rice flour dumplings filled with soursop. All a nice enough end to the meal.

All up, a great meal with the best ingredients - all the dishes were prepared beautifully and the serving sizes were fairly decent. The waitstaff we had were perfect - observant, a bit familiar, but knowledgeable about the food.

My only gripe is the prices - I certainly wasn't expecting to pay as much as this for a 'casual Vietnamese' meal (those are my quotes, by the way), but I suppose you have to take into account the inner city location and the lovely decor and quality of the food.  The experience is quite different to the rusticity that you see owner Luke Nguyen encountering on his wonderful tv programs on Vietnam and the Mekong.

Overall, it was a fine finish to the other half's birthday celebrations and I'd like to go back to try other dishes - it would be great if someone else was paying, though!

Red Lantern on Riley

60 Riley Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010 

ph: 02 9698 4355 

web: http://redlantern.com.au/riley

I booked online by choosing a date and time and they called back to confirm, plus a text reminder as well. Very smooth procedure.