Main Dish

Roast Rack of Lamb with Herb Crust

Ingredients:

-        2 racks of lamb, about 350 – 400 grammes and eight ribs each rack

-        2 – 3 tablespoon Dijon mustard

-        Flaky sea salt

-        Freshly ground pepper

-        2 tablespoon Olive oil

Herb Crust:

-        Handful of parsley

-        Handful of mint

-        Few sprigs of Rosemary

-        Handful of Thyme

-        4 tablespoon bread crumbs

-        Pinches of fine sea salt

Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 200C/390F or 190C/370F for a fan forced oven. Clean the racks of lamb and pat them dry with paper towels. Season the pieces with the flaky sea salt and ground pepper. Let them stand for a while.

2.      Prepare the herb crust by chopping all the herbs finely or put them in a food processor. The quantity of the finely chopped herbs should be at least 4 tablespoons. Add 4 tablespoon of bread crumbs to the herbs and season with fine sea salt, mix them well and set aside.

3.      Heat a frying pan and add 2 tablespoon of olive oil.  When hot, put in the racks of lamb to sear both sides. About 2 minutes each side.

4.      Remove the lamb from the frying pan and leave them to cool down to touch. When ready, brush the Dijon mustard onto the meat surfaces of the racks and coat them with the herb crust. Press the crust on firmly and put the racks on a roasting tin.

5.      Put the lamb into the preheated oven and roast for 18 - 20 minutes for medium and 5 more minutes for well done. Take the lamb out from the oven when ready, transfer them to a plate and cover them loosely with a tinfoil and rest for a few minutes. Cut the racks into individual chops and serve 4 pieces each person.

Hint:

-        You can use days old bread to make bread crumbs by putting them in a food processor

-        Dijon Mustard could be replaced by English mustard.  Watch out if replacing it with whole grain mustard, though I like it better, the whole grain mustard does not hold the crust to the lamb so well as the other mustard.

-        If you sear the meat longer than 2 minutes each side, the roasting time should be reduced accordingly.

Tapas/Starters

Oyster in Tempura Batter served with 2 Dipping Sauces

Ingredients:

-         12  NZ pacific oyster, shucked

-         4 or more tablespoon corn flour for dusting

-         Rice Bran oil for deep frying

Batter:

-         250ml of ice cold water

-         120grammes self raising flour

-         30grammes of Corn flour

-         1 egg yolk, beaten

Dipping sauces:

1.      Garlic mayonnaise:-

-         ½ teaspoon finely minced garlic

-         ½ teaspoon finely minced shallot

-         ½ tablespoon lemon juice

-         ¼ teaspoon caster sugar

-         1 tablespoon mayonnaise

2.      Soy and Mirin sauce:-

-         ½ tablespoon light soy sauce

-         ½ tablespoon hon mirin

-         ½ tablespoon lemon juice

-         ½ tablespoon water

-         ¼ teaspoon finely grated turnip

-         ¼ teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger root

Method:

1.      Prepare the batter by mixing the corn flour with the self raising flour. Add the flour and the beaten egg yolk into the ice cold water (do not add the water to the flour) and slightly whisk them together. Do not mix them too well, make sure the batter is in a consistency similar to double cream but with lots of air bubbles and small lumps of flour in the mixture. Put the batter into the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you use.

2.      Rinse off the slimy bits of the oysters and dry them thoroughly with paper towels.

3.      While waiting for the batter to set and the oyster to further dry, prepare the dipping sauces. Mix all the ingredients of the garlic mayonnaise and let it stand for at least 10 minutes.  Mix all ingredients except the grated turnip and ginger of the soy and mirin dip. Set them aside

4.      When the batter is set, spread the 4 tablespoon of corn flour on a tray and dust the oyster in the cornflour. Heat up a saucepan or wok or deepfryer to 180C/ 350F with enough cooking oil for deep frying.

5.      When the oil is hot enough, dip the dusted oyster one at a time into the batter with a pair of tongs and transfer it into the hot oil, deep fry only 6 oysters at one time.

6.      When the batter is just turning colour, remove the oysters from the oil and rest them on a wire rack to drain the oil and to slightly cool down, deep fry the other six oysters same as the first batch.

7.      When the second batch of oysters starting to turn colour, remove the oysters from the oil as the first batch.  Now, return the 1^st batch to the cooking oil and deep fry for another minute or 2 till they turn more golden, remove them from the oil and drain off excess oil.  Repeat the same to the 2^nd batch of oyster.

8.      Serve the oysters with the 2 dipping sauces. The grated turnip and ginger could be put into the soy and mirin sauce just before serving or serve them separately in a small saucer.

Hint:

-         The air bubbles and the small lumps of flour in the batter help the tempura to become crispier. You can replace the ice cold water with ice cold soda water to introduce more air into the batter mixture. It is the same idea as beer batter.

-         Make sure you add the flour to the water, not the other way round.

-         Make sure the oil is hot enough when deep frying the oysters, put a drop of batter into the hot cooking oil to check if the oil is ready for frying.

-         Do not deep fry more than 6 oysters at one time, this is to make sure the temperature of the oil will not drop significantly and the oysters will not stick together.

-         Frying the oysters twice will make the batter crispier and crunchier.

-         After mixing the garlic, shallot and other ingredients with the mayonnaise, leave it for 10 minutes to let the garlic infuse into the mayonnaise before serving.  

-         The grated turnip is supposed to balance the “heat’ from the deep fried food, helps digestion and fat burning.

Side Dish and Accompaniment

Roast crispy potato slices

Ingredients:

-        4 big size potatoes preferably Desiree or any waxy potatoes 

-        Big pot of water

-        A stalk or few mint leaves

-        Olive oil or rendered duck fat

-        Flaky or fine sea salt

Method:

1.      Preheat the oven to 200C or 390F. 190C or 370F for a convection oven.

2.      Brush and wash off all the soil stick to the skin of the potatoes, put them into a large pot of water with few mint leaves.  Cooked them till you put in a skewer through and find there is some resistance from the centre but still able to put through.

3.      Drain the potatoes and rinse them in cold water for 1 minute and let them cool down. When the potatoes are cool to touch, peel the skin off and cut them into ½ cm or 1/8 inch thick slices.

4.      Layer the potato slices into a baking dish, slightly overlapping the slices. Sprinkle flaky or fine sea salt on top of the potatoes and then the olive oil or rendered duck fat evenly on each piece. Quantity of salt and olive oil is up to individual, however, the more oil you put, the crispier the potatoes.

5.      Roast the potatoes for 35 – 40 minutes or till the edges of the potatoes turn crispy and brown.  You can enhance the dish with herbs or cheese. If so, you could consider putting the potatoes back into the oven for a short while to let cheese melt. 

Main Dish

Duck in Orange Sauce

Ingredients:

-        1 New Zealand size 19 (about 1.9kg)  Duck

-        1 whole orange

-        Fine sea salt

-        Ground pepper

-        4 tablespoon Grand Marnier

-        3 tablespoon butter

-        1 tablespoon Rice Bran oil

Orange Sauce:

-        Juice of 2 big oranges about 1 cup, strained

-        1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

-        2 teaspoon caster sugar

-        2 tablespoon limoncello or orange/Mandarin/peach liqueur

Method:

1.   Clean the duck and cut it into 6 or 8 pieces. Pat dry the duck pieces with kitchen towel and season the pieces with salt fine sea salt and pepper. Cut the orange own to flesh and into pieces, removing all fibres and seeds. Mix all ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
2.   Put the butter and the Rice Bran oil in a big and deep frying pan and heat it up with medium heat. When the butter melt and starts to bubble, fry the duck pieces with skin side down for 3 minutes, turn them and fry the other side for 2 minutes. Lower the heat and slowly fry the duck pieces for another 30 – 35 minutes. Turn the pieces occasionally so that the meat side is cooked and the skin side is slightly brown.  By this time, most of the fat under the duck skin should be rendered.
3.   Pour the Grand Marnier on top of the duck pieces and cook the duck for another 5 minutes. Remove the duck pieces from the pan and keep them warm while preparing the sauce.
4.   Skim most of the fat out from the frying pan. Strain the remaining juice/liqueur and pour it into a saucepan and add the sauce mixture. Stir the orange sauce well for 1 – 2 minutes in low heat.
5.   Put the orange pieces into another frying pan/skillet with 2 tablespoon of the orange sauce, heat them without boiling for 1 minute.
6.   Arrange the duck pieces onto a serving plate and surrounding them with the orange pieces.  Pour some of the orange sauce on top of the duck pieces and the rest with a sauce bowl before serving.

Hint:

-        Use Rice Bran oil with the butter helps the butter not to burn easily.

-        If less sweet liqueur is used, add ½ teaspoon of sugar, to make it an equal amount of            vinegar and caster sugar.

-        Do not discard the duck fat, it is good for roast potatoes.

-        Serve the dish with some simple green vegetables

Seafood – New Zealand Crayfish two courses in Thai-Chinese Style

 1:  Crayfish Head with Vermicelli in Clay Pot or Casserole

Ingredients:

-        Head of a 1 kg NZ Crayfish preferably live or fresh

-        2 rashers streaky bacon

-        100 grammes mung bean vermicelli (when dried)

-        1 stem Spring Onion

-        1 stem Coriander

-        1 stem Chinese Celery or a few leaves of celery plant

-        2 pieces thinly sliced ginger

-        1 big clove garlic bashed and cut into few pieces

-        2 star anise

-        1 teaspoon Szechuan Pepper

-        3 tablespoon cooking oil

Sauce:

-        1 tablespoon light soy sauce

-        ½ tablespoon dark soy sauce

-        2 tablespoon oyster sauce

-        1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (optional)

-        2 tablespoon water

Method:

1.      Rehydrate the mung bean vermicelli by soaking it with cold water for about half an hour or longer and drain them when soft. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.

2.      Rinse the spring onion, coriander and celery. Discard the root of the spring onion and cut the white part into 2 to 3 sections, cut the green part into 4cm or 1 ½ inch. Scrape the dirt from the top of the root of the coriander, cut the leaves from the rest of the stem and keep both parts. Cut the celery stalk into 4 sections if using whole Chinese Celery stalk. If using celery leaves, no cutting is needed. Cut the streaky bacon into 4 cm or 1 ½ inch pieces. Set all of them aside.

3.      Rinse the crayfish head well and remove the gills on both sides. Cut off all the claws and bash them with the back of a cleaver or a meat tenderizer. Chop the rest of the head off into at least 4 chunks.

4.      Heat up a frying pan with 2 tablespoon of cooking oil. When hot, put the crayfish pieces including the claws to fry for about 3 to 4 minutes by turning the pieces when each surface is sealed. When done set them aside.

5.      Heat the clay pot or casserole with medium heat, put in the star anise and Szechuan pepper and stir fry them for 1 minute. Add one tablespoon of cooking oil to the clay pot/casserole, when turning hot, add the garlic, ginger and the white sections of the spring onion and stir fry for another minute. Put in the streaky bacon and stir fry them for 1 to 2 minutes.

6.      Stir in the sauce and the celery sections or celery leaves as well as the stem of the coriander. When the sauce starts to heat up, put in the crayfish pieces, claws and the juice remaining in the pan. Bring the sauce to almost boiling and turn the heat down to low and let all ingredients simmer for 10 minutes with lid on.

7.      When ready, use a pair of tongs to push the crayfish to the side of the casserole and put in the vermicelli to the bottom of the casserole. Use the tongs to stir the vermicelli and make sure they absorb the sauce/juice evenly and every strand is covered with the sauce/juice, it should take no more than 2 minutes. When this is done, use the tongs to spread all the vermicelli on top of the crayfish pieces which are pushed back to the centre of the casserole. Put half of the coriander leaves and the green sections of the spring onion in and put the lid of the casserole back on and turn off the heat. Let it stand for 7 - 8 minutes or more.

8.      Open the lid, you can (not necessary) use the tongs to put the crayfish pieces back on top of the noodles, garnish it with the rest of the coriander leaves before serving.

Hint:

-        You can cook the whole crayfish this way or add more vermicelli. If so, adjust the quantity of the sauce proportionally.

-        Unless you cook a much bigger crayfish or a lot more vermicelli, you can keep the spices the same quantity

-        You could fry the star anise and Szechuan pepper the same way but tie them in a muslin cloth when they cool down and put bouquet in when you stir in the sauce, this you could avoid having the Szechuan pepper among the vermicelli when the dish is served.

-        Spread the vermicelli on of the crayfish and put the lid on with the heat turn off is to cook the noodles with the residual heat.  This make sure the noodles is cooked through but not getting soggy or too salty.

-        The traditional way is to use a piece of pork fat, but I prefer rashes of bacon which give another dimension with their smoky flavour.

-        In Thai cooking, coriander root (head of the stalk) is very often used as an important spice. Just scrape off the brown or soil. Same as ginger skin/peel for Chinese, older generation Chinese use the ginger with the skin/peel.

2:  Crayfish with Thai Yellow Curry

Ingredients:

-        Tail of a 1 kg NZ Crayfish preferably live or fresh

-        1 stem Spring Onion

-        Coriander to garnish

-        2 - 3 tablespoon cooking oil

Sauce:

-        1 teaspoon Thai yellow curry paste

-        4 teaspoon mild Chinese/Thai chilli oil

-        1 teaspoon fish sauce

-        ½ teaspoon caster sugar

-        1 duck egg (could be replaced by chicken egg)

-        4 tablespoon water

Method:

1.      Cut the crayfish into half lengthwise and discard the intestine. Rinse and pat dry the crayfish.

2.      Brush a small amount of cooking oil onto a frying pan and heat it up. When the pan is hot, put the 2 pieces of crayfish in with meat side down. Seared them for 1 – 2 minutes then lower down the heat to medium.

3.      Continue to fry the crayfish till they shrink but not fully cooked. Turn the crayfish and fry the shell side of the crayfish till the shell changed to orange colour and the meat is able to be pulled out from the shell. At this stage, the crayfish will be about 80% cooked. Turn the heat off and let the crayfish cool down.

4.      While waiting for the crayfish to cool down, cut the spring onion into 4cm or 1 ½ inch. Mix well the curry paste, 2 tablespoon chilli oil, fish sauce and sugar. Beat the duck egg and add it into the sauce with 4 tablespoon of water. Mixed them well and aside.

5.      When the crayfish is cool to touch, pull the meat out of the shell and cut each half of the crayfish meat into bite size pieces. Put the 2 half shells on a serving plate and set aside.

6.      Heat up a frying pan with the remaining cooking oil, when hot, put white sections of the spring onion and the crayfish pieces to sautéed together. When the meat is fully cooked, stir in the green sections of the spring onion and pour in the curry sauce and stir it briskly for a few seconds till the egg is started to set.

7.      Fill the empty half shells with the crayfish meat, put the curry sauce on top, drizzle the remaining 2 teaspoon of chilli oil op top and garnish with coriander leaves before serving.

Hint:

-        You can grill the crayfish tail or cook them in broth or water, if you cook them broth or water, cook it in whole and cut them after cooked.

-        The duck egg could be replaced by chicken egg, but the texture will not be as light. Chicken egg is smaller than duck egg, you may need to reduce the water added to the sauce.

-        Unless you can eat really hot, mild Chinese/Thai chilli oil or sesame chilli oil is recommended, you could put more than 4 teaspoon.

-        Do not overcook the sauce, stir it briskly till it just started to set.

-        The sauce goes very well with plain steam rice. Enjoy!