Hooked on Truffles

I have seen and heard of Italians going through such troubles to find truffles and raving about their unique flavour, but the mystery of truffles remained, until I finally tried Porcine risotto with White truffles at Primo Italiano-Sydney’s annual Italian festival. *You see me carefully putting the last spoonful of risotto?*

I was surprised by the unusual flavour, yet I wasn’t sure whether the flavour came from porcine mushrooms or the truffles or the combination. Then I saw cheese with white truffles at a cheese tasting stall and sampled some, there I finally understood the hoo-hah about Truffles. From then on, truffle flavour became something I can die for. *too exaggerated? I admit. *

Nowadays whenever I run into Italian cheese shops I look out for truffle cheese. *Perfect match for wine!*

These are three different types of cheese from Good Food&Wine Show last weekend where I lost my sense and bought a bag full of it. This truffle cheese was softer than one above and covered with what I thought was ashes – they made the cheese look a bit messy as you can see.

This Italian washed rind, creamy brie is what is thought to be the best in the world. I don’t know what could be the best way to describe the taste. *My apology for my lack of culinary vocabulary*

Very creamy and a bit stinky for brie, …

Nice with fruit paste…

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Shitaki Mushroom with White Truffle Cheese

I keep dried Shitaki mushrooms handy for those days when I can’t find anything to cook from the fridge. I often throw them in stir fry or any other Asian dishes since they give really nice, rich flavour.

I’m not sure if Italians cook with Shitaki mushrooms. I don’t remember seeing them in European shops or restaurants in general, either.

The first risotto I made was ‘Swiss Brown mushroom Risotto‘ and it is my all time favourite.

This time I adapted the same recipe to Shitaki by replacing parmesan cheese with truffle cheese. I was a bit worried the strong shtaki flavour would overpower truffles.

But the stinkiness of truffles beat shitaki 3 to 5. *impressive winning*

I recommend you squeeze a bit of lemon juice over your risotto.

Lemon will enhance the unique mushroom flavour to perfection and make every mouthful absolutely heavenly.

Good Food&Wine Show 2008

Last weekend I went to the Good Food&Wine Show held at Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour. It was my first time attending such a show, besides small Wine&Jazz Festivals I have been to, and I absolutely had a ball there, all by myself – it was Friday so everyone was at work. What about me? I took a day off only to see Gordon Ramsay! Tickets for his sessions were all sold out except for Friday morning, so there was much choice.

Was he worth giving up a day’s pay? I would have to say ‘YES!’ You can call me silly or stupid or whatever, but at least I had a choice and had the gut to say ‘I’m not going in today.’ Most importantly, I didn’t regret in the slightest spending all day indulging in good wine and cheese as I left the show.

Gordon, Gordon~~!! He was exactly the same as on TV, in terms of the way he talks and swear. He gave audience, which was made up of females, a good laugh. I wasn’t a HUGE fan of him up until the show. Now I like him more than before. Appearing on stage with rather dishevelled hair and moving around in a hectic way made him seem so natural and human.

After Gordon Ramsay’s session, I wondered off to the main event to try different wines and foods. It was before midday so I waited til the clock hit 12 – at least I had some sense and moral *cheeky*- and started drinking. But I saw many people walking around, their wine glass stained with wine and their cheeks almost the same colour was wine, when I first arrived, which was 10.20am. Good on them! *big praise for their boldness*

Nice olive oil and balsamic vinegar infused in different spices was a good part of the show, let alone wine, olives and cheese. Cinnamon&Vanilla Balsamic vinegar... how does that sound? What about wasabi olive oil?

I started out being very careful about which wine I choose for tasting, then as time went by, I tried any wine I stumbled across – it’s always the case, isn’t it? *smile* In the end, I couldn’t remember which wine I liked and was thinking of getting. *sigh*

Not just wine, I also went around all different cheese stalls trying nice cheese, and I settled in an Italian cheese section where I had the most incredible blue cheese and creamy soft cheese, which the guy at the stall claimed as world best. He was So right! Unlike French brie or camembert, it had an unusual bite to it, kind of sharp and stinky. By then I was feeling pretty happy from all that free wine, so it was very easy to fork out a big chunk of money I wouldn’t normally spend on cheese. Another surprise, when I heard a voice announcing the nearing end of the show. I couldn’t believe I spent the whole day drinking and eating non-stop. When you are doing what you are really passionate about, you realise how easy it is to forget the passing of time. On the way home with a bag full of cheese and another bag full of 4 bottles of Nando’s I felt pain in my feet. But all for the fun!

This is just an extra pix of a Korean Kimchi stall at the show. I thought it was quite strange to see it there because wine doesn’t go with Kimchi! It might do with the Kimchi pancake, though. For me nothing beats cheese with wine…

Nancy’s Food Collections

Just a small collection of dishes I made in the remote past. My initial plan was to publish them one by one whenever I get a chance. But as time goes and more new dishes come along, I find it hard to go back to old folders. Because, firstly, my new work looks better as I’ve been trying to learn photographing skills to present my dishes better, and secondly, I have moved on to simpler cooking style from the one that three meals are stuffed into one dish. Still, I adore my old babies and some of them cry out to see the world whenever I see them squashed in disorderly old folders. So here they are. I might find some time to write about each dish in the future, but for the time being please enjoy their looks.

Western

Chicken Mushroom Penne               Salmon Spinach Spaghetti

Pumpkin Spinach Feta Bread             Turkish Gozleme

Seafood Paella Pumpkin                 Sun-dried tomato Risotto

Spicy Bean Nachos                 Spinach Hot Mousse

Eastern

Oriental Fish Soup                         Tofu Stir-fry

Seafood Korean Pancake                     Kimchi Roll

Tofu Green Curry                     Fish Masala / Tofu&Veggie Korma

Move your mouse over the photos, and a link will appear if there is a recipe for them. Or if you are interested in any dished in the picture, give me a yell, then I will post the recipe immediately. Thanks.

Nancy’s Hot Sauce

I got a bit of extra time this morning and decided to dedicated the time to my blog. My internet usage is nearing the monthly limit and I’m trying to use offpeak time for more usage. In this day and age, having to worry about the internet cost is nonsense, but it’s the reality. *disappointed*

But there is something that gives me morning delight – Avocado with Hot sauce!

Why does avocado taste so so so nice with hot sauce? Have you tried avocado with jam? I know people who eat avocado with fruit jam as if it was fruit. Hang on, I’m confused now. Is it fruit or vegetable? I’ll google it later. I just did, and it says it’s fruit. Surprise, surprise~. Can you make avocado jam then? *confused*

Americans created Tabasco – it is the most widely spread throughout the world- New Zealand has the mouth burning ‘Kaitai Fire’, which is hotter than Tabasco. A Kaitai fire bottle has a warning sign for those who might underestimate its hotness. Its speciality is the green kiwifruit hot sauce and it is really really hot!

And Australia has ‘Nando’s’!! It is made of South African chili called peri peri pepper, in other words, bird’s eye chili. Nando’s has fuller flavour since it has more ingredients and spices added.

One day when my Nando’s was running out I attempted to make my own Nando’s by mixing all the ingredients written on the bottle. And it wasn’t bad at all – although it wasn’t hot enough.

So I named it ‘Nancy’s’. My partner said he liked my hot sauce better. He should say that, shouldn’t he? *smile*

The secret of Nando’s out. No more mystery. Try to make healthy, additive free hot sauce in your kitchen, to your preferred heat. I hope I don’t get sued by Nando’s.

Ricotta Ricotta!

Even people who can’t stand the smell and taste of normal cheese would love ricotta, I bet. It is similar to tofu in many ways – both are pure white, full of protein, nearly zero fat, soft creamy texture, mild flavour.

Despite the similarities, I haven’t thought of eating ricotta the way I do tofu – cooked with soy sauce or chili – until now, maybe that would be my next experiment. I’m sure if I google ‘ricotta with soy sauce’ I will get hundreds of results, though. There are a lot of interesting recipes out there these days.

One of my favourite way of enjoying ricotta cheese is to put a generous amount on toast with honey for breakfast, *mouth watering*, or just eat it by itself as if it were yoghurt, enjoying every spoonful of it, especially baked ricotta from a deli.

As a Sunday breakfast treat, I made an omelet with asparagus and ricotta. It is not an ordinary omelet that you crack whole eggs into a bowl and mix with other ingredients all together. My omelet making involves the effort of whisking egg whites separately- it feels more like baking. I don’t make the extra work to get an omelet that has a look of really thick fluffy clouds and smooth sponge cake texture.

More more ricotta, please~~~

Maybe it’s how omelet is normally cooked. But I don’t recall having any fluffy bouncy spongy omelet ever. There is another benefit in that method. If you have more mouths and not enough eggs, it will help to stretch out the meal.

<Fluffy Omelet with Asparagus & Ricotta >

I had it with garlic rubbed baguette, and with the flavours of asparagus and ricotta enhanced to perfection by the garlic flavour, I had to close my eyes…

*I was in heaven*

Stuffed Capsicum with Spinach-Mandarin Salad

I have something for stuffed vegetables. I think they look pretty, exotic and natural. It shows a bit of extra effort and thought you put in, so it’s easy way to get extra points. *cheeky smile* You can fill vegetables such as a capsicum, tomato, zucchini, potato, eggplant… the list goes on.

But I like it for a practical reason. If you have leftover rice and some old vegetables cry out to be used, you can just throw them all in a pan and turn them into a nice filling. With the addition of herbs and spices it will be made into a gourmet dish. It is also a pretty healthy way of eating all the vegetables.

I think the most common filling is rice with some minced beef or bacon and tomato salsa. This recipe is created with lentils for people who don’t like meat so much.  Lentils give a bit of meaty texture and colour to any dishes.

<Baked Capsicum stuffed with lentils>

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 capsicum, halved (1each if you like)
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1stalk of celery, diced
I can tomatoes
2 cups lentils (fresh&cooked or canned)
2 Tbs olive oil
a splash of red wine
1 egg
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
salt n pepper
parsley
carrot, diced – optional
parmesan -optional

Prepare the capsicum by cutting in half and removing seeds
Preheat the oven to 180′C
Cook onion, garlic, celery until soft, and add tomato, lentils and cook further
Add spices, salt, pepper, then egg
Fill capsicum with the mixture, drizzle some olive oil and bake for 30-40 mins
Serve with grated parmesan if desired

* if you like it spicy, add some dried chili or chili powder when you cook the vegetables.

Try that healthy meal with this Popeye salad

Everyone knows how good spinach is for health. It’s full of iron and calcium. But apparently the iron content of spinach was mistakenly reported ten times higher than its actual value during 1930s. Even if so, spinach has many other nutritional benefits including cleaning the liver and preventing night blindness.

The best way to get the most of calcium and iron in spinach is to eat it raw with food with vitamin C. So I came up with this recipe.

<Spinach Salad with Mandarin and Orange>

Ingredients

baby spinach
orange, mandarin
kalamata olives
cucumber
almond or pine nuts – optional
spanish onion – I didn’t have any at that time, so I used spring onion. It matched well, too.
dressing – red wine or balsamic vinegar with olive oil or lemon mustard dressing or any of your choice

Pizza Collections

I’ve been lazy with my blog again. *blush* I have so many things going on with me at the moment. But very recently I went through an old photo folder. It seemed that I had lost many photos after a virus attack on my computer. So I thought I needed to put some food from my early cooking time on the blog before I lose more. There is another reason, too. When I looked at the old photos I felt like deleting them all. Some looked unattractive and outdated. Sure, my cooking style has changed over time, and when I see my old cooking now, I often think I could have done it differently. But it is still good to keep a record of changes in my cooking. You never know when it might come in handy.

For a start, today is pizza. I love making pizzas with lebanese bread- I think I have already mentioned that many times. I have a long list of pizza recipes in my head. Improvising a pizza recipe is easy and fun. I don’t take a picture of every pizza I make – usually the thought of putting a hot slice of yummy pizza into my mouth wins over making it cold while taking pictures. But from this moment I will try HARD to make sure I take a moment to take pictures of my pizzas.

Brie&Leek Pizza

It is simple and subtle.

It’s good as an entree or a snack while waiting for the main pizza or pasta.

Chili Shrimp Pizza

One of my favourite pizza! You can make so many variations with shrimps or prawns.

Garlic prawn, BBQ prawn, Curry prawn, Shrimp mayo, etc.

Above all, this combination of shrimp, chili, garlic and spring onion is unresistable!

<Giant Half n Half Pizza>

One night I went into a pizza frenzy and rolled out the dough into the size of a big squre baking tray. It is actually a good way to make a gaint pizza to feed many people at once – This was just big enough for two greedy pizza fanatics that night, though.

You know what? Pizza Hut is currently advertising its big square pizza. Go square~! Now you don’t need to

worry about holding the pointy end of triangle pizza slice when you’ve got a drink in one hand. *Smart*

Mushroom&Sundried Tomato

Anchovy&Olive