February Daring Cooks Challenge

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

I make my own burger patties reasonably often as I like to know what's gone into my burgers. Also, I don't eat beef and it is often a bit tricky to find burgers made from any other meat. I  liked the idea of making patties for this month's challenge, but having previously tried out recipes for lamb, pork, chicken and turkey burgers I didn't want to make a meat recipe this time. Instead I chose to make some fishcakes - I figured they were the same shape and cooking method so technically could be counted as a patty!

I decided to use a combination of mashed potato and lightly smoked salmon fillet. To this I added some sweetcorn kernels, finely sliced spring onions, and peas, as well as an egg to bind it all together. I crushed some wholegrain crackers to crumbs and sprinkled these over my patties to make a crunchy crispy outside.

I then grilled these (the challenge was to shallow fry or bake the patties, but I hope I can be forgiven a minor transgression!) and served them with some homemade amai sauce (vinegar, ketchup, tamarind, soy, sugar), new potatoes, and crunchy vegetables. Yummy.

Thank you to the Daring Cooks for getting me to look out a new recipe: I think this one will become a regular feature on my dinner table!

sushi #2

The coming of spring makes me want salads and sushi. Just like everyone else, I get less bothered about having hot meals for dinner as soon as the weather warms up. Maybe all the blossom springing into bloom around home and work brought an association to mind with the Hanami (cherry blossom) festival in Japan, but whatever it was that made me desire sushi, this weekend I was a bit spoilt, and treated myself to sushi two days in a row - one lot bought, and one lot home made.





Now I know that I have blogged sushi making before, but I do so again because I made some different kinds of sushi this time. I'm sure its a good thing to develop the repertoire!

This time I made nori maki again; the normal nori (seaweed) wrapped sushi, filled with smoked salmon, cucumber, spring onion and a little wasabi. This time I marinated the smoked salmon in a mixture of sake, shoyu and water for an hour before I used it.

I also had a try at inside-out sushi rolls. These were easier to form than I'd been expecting, which was a nice surprise. You start off in the same way as for the nori-maki, but cover the nori and rice with cling film once you've spread the rice on the nori, then turn it over onto the rolling mat so that the seaweed is on the top. I filled these ones with a similar filling; waabi, cucumber, smoked salmon, and then rolled the finished sushi rolls in furikake, which is a Japanese seasoning made from black and white sesame seeds, nori (seaweed), and red shiso leaves. It gave the outside of the rolls an appealing crunch.



And finally....drum roll please... I tried something entirely new: Onigri. These are rice balls filled with tasty morsels and wrapped in a strip of nori. I made one for each of us filled with smoked mackerel, and one each filled with a mixture of Omeboshi (Japanese pickled plums), mirin, and sesame seeds. Those plums were SHARP! The only thing I've had before of similar face-scrunching sourness is the lime pickle you get with poppadums in Indian restaurants. Not unpleasant, but I think I'd make smaller portions next time!



Of course, this was all served up with extra wasabi, shoyu, and pickled ginger condiments, and a small salad of cucmber and spring onion.



Yummy sushi - My favourite.

Sushi

Using an amalgamation of techniques from my new Fish cookbook by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and the Japanese cookery book I've had for a while, I finally had a try at making one of my favourite dinners - sushi.

I don't think my efforts matched up to the sushi from my favourite place, Yoshino Sushi on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, but I was still pretty proud of my efforts.

I made california rolls with smoked salmon, spring onion, cucumber and a hint of wasabi, wrapped in nori (seaweed):

Step one, assemble the roll on the sushi mat:


Step two, roll the roll and allow the nori to seal at the edges:


Step three, slice the column into pieces:


Finally, serve with soy sauce, pickled ginger, some wasabi, and a little extra cucumber and spring onion:


I also made nori with a streak of wasabi paste and smoked mackerel on the top, which you can see in the last couple of images. The mackerel could have done with being a little thinner, but it was a great flavour.

We had some chilli marinated seared tuna and jumbo prawns with the sushi. We dipped the prawns in lovely homemade garlicky mayonnaise. Fab dinner - probably our fish quota for the week!

Daring Cooks February Challenge

This month's Daring Cooks Challenge got me excited - it was a Japanese recipe. Perfect as I have a Japanese cook book which I rarely use, and that makes me feel a little guilty. The challenge was to make a cold soba noodle salad and some kind of tempura. Tempura has been on my wishlist for quite some time, so it was great to have the push to finally attempt it.

So as to assuage my cookbook guilt I tried a recipe from my own book rather than taking up one of the suggestions given by Daring Cooks, but I kept in the spirit of the challenge. I made soba noodles with a dipping sauce made from shoyu (japanese soy), mirin, water and bonito powder, and served them garnished with nori (crisp seaweed), with spring onions and wasabi paste on the side. For my tempura I chose a mix of green beans, prawns, and baby corn. It all made a fantastic lunch.



I had been confident that Dan would like the tempura (its deep fried - a no brainer!), but I was surprised and pleased by how much he enjoyed the noodle dish too. Definitely one to do again. Although, I made a massive mess in the kitchen!



The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com