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Winter Warmer - Congee

Congee is the chicken soup of Asia. When a child, teen or adult is sick, out comes the big pot and a large batch of Congee is made. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a soupy rice porridge into which other ingredients are added like egg omelette, mince, meat, eggs, fried bread sticks, shredded BBQ chicken as well as soy and ginger. It’s whatever you really fancy and I can imagine many a mum found it useful as that meant she could add whatever she wanted into it.

This recipe is by Elizabeth Chong, but you needn’t follow the topping suggestions, you could really add anything to a Congee. Of course I found it from Vogue forum where many avid cooks congregate to exchange recipes and talk about shoes. Because I made it for vegetarians, I stopped before adding the mince although I’ve shown the recipe in its original form should you want to make it for meat eaters. Adding the stock makes it so much more flavourful than plain water.

One thing that she doesn’t specifically mention but I adore is a packet of Hainanese Chicken rice spice paste of finely ground oily paste ginger and sesame oil which is traditionally served with chicken rice. It’s made by Asian Home Gourmet and is sold by the 50g flat packet called “Hainanese Chicken Rice Spice Paste”. It’s worth hunting for this as it’s gorgeous with the congee. Crispy or crunchy things often fare well as accompaniments to Congee and I tried to find deep fried breadsticks but to no avail. Things such as the aforementioned BBQ chicken or stir fried chicken are also great with Congee

14 comments | June 16, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Sky Phoenix at Skygarden

Posted in Eating, Sydney - CBD and inner city

It’s a girly afternoon that brings my friend Gina, Teena and I to Sky Phoenix. We’ve left the boys behind and are going to Yum Cha, shopping and the latest Sex and The City movie. The boys don’t mind, they’re more than grateful that they don’t have to sit through the movie which for a straight man is as bewildering and foreign as washing the dishes or the world of shoe shopping. The only part that the boys would miss is the Yum Cha. We usually go to Sky Phoenix as a) it looks chic inside b) we never have to wait and c) the food is good and the trolley ladies always stop and explain to us what they have in English. Having waited once for a table for 2 hours at Yum Cha (Kam Fook), I’ve been permanently scarred by the experience and we’ve also had trolley ladies whiz past us not willing to stop (Marigold Citymark) where I also saw Adman Siimon Reynolds get just as frustrated at the trolleys flying past and not stopping for him either (I guess they really didn’t know who he was ).

Pork with honey and black pepper sauce $9.80

We want to sit near the window but they won’t let us, despite the fact that the two areas are empty and remain so even after we leave. Many trolleys stop by and we take advantage of this and crowd our table with dishes so that we can talk without being interrupted. The first dish we select happens to be a “kitchen special” ($9.80), a small square plate of pork pieces coated in a honey and black pepper sauce. The pork is crispy and fattily delicious and the sauce deliciously sweet with a hint of hotness. I don’t know if the small serving necessarily warrants the price tag but it’s delicious nevertheless.

Scallop dumplings

The scallop dumplings are next, plump with seafood with the delicate translucent skin, although it could be prawns as well as the prized scallops for all we can discern.

Spinach and Seafood dumplings

The spinach and seafood dumplings are next, one of my firm favourites. They’re delicious and flavoursome with crunchy pockets of water chestnuts and all at the table murmur our agreement at its goodness. And having so much spinach in them can only attest to how healthy they are, right?

Yam dumplings

One of my favourite yum cha dishes is next, the yam dumplings. Although I prefer the steamed dumplings, I can never go past these dumplings. Coated in a fine lacey golden deep fried outer that crumbles and collapses in the mouth to reveal a gooey yam mash centre with mung beans and pork. I love dipping this in sweet and sour sauce and reveling in it’s soft and crispy textures.

Prawn Har Gow

The Har Gow is a favourite of mine and my husband’s and we’ve been known to order 4 of these at a Yum Cha seating. These are 4 plump prawn filled dumplings. There are two kinds of Yum Cha restaurants, ones that will serve piddly little Har Gow with tiny minced up prawns or the ones that serve these big plump dumplings with whole or halved prawns. Thankfully most good ones will have these although when I do come across one of the smaller ones I’m not happy. It’s also handy as it’s the only Chinese Yum Cha item that I know how to say in Chinese without eliciting a puzzled expression.

Ham sui gok

The Ham Sui gok (ok this is a second item I can vaguely pronounce), a pale, deep fried football of goodness, has crispy, sticky outer courtesy of the rice flour that sticks to your teeth. It’s filled with a delicious minced pork and dried prawn interior. And despite my rather poor explanation, they are better than they sound.

Custard dumplings

We’re done with our savouries now and going onto the sweets. We’ve spotted a cute pumpkin shaped fried dumpling and we’re told it has not pumpkin, but custard inside. The pumpkin stem is actually the top of a bird’s eye chili. As Gina points out, it’s someone’s job to put the little details on these things and one of them being putting the chili stem onto these dumplings. The blistered pale deep fried surface is similar to the Ham Sui Gok and hides a delicious thick custard inside. It’s like a tastier, cuter custard puff.

Black sesame and mango dessert

Our last dish is the one chosen simply because it looked like sushi and we had never seen it before. It has a black sesame jelly outer and a mango pudding filling. Black sesame can either be gorgeous in desserts or jarring and in this case it is jarring with a smokey, savoury sesame oil flavour to it. We peel off the outer jelly and eat the delicious mango pudding jelly inside.

We’re full and ready for a spot of shopping and the movie to end all girly movies. And the total damage? $56.10. More money for Manolos which would make Carrie proud.

Sky Phoenix

Level 3, Skygarden
77 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000
Open 7 days
Also a location at Manly, Rhodes and Castle Hill
http://www.phoenixrestaurants.com.au/

11 comments | June 11, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Plan B by Bécasse

Posted in Cheap Thrills, Eating, Sydney - CBD and inner city, Uncategorized

Would you believe me, Dear Reader, when I told you that the humble sausage roll had broken the $7 price barrier? You might be even more surprised when I tell you that at $7 it was worth every lip smackin’, finger lickin’, slowly savoured bite. The sausage roll in question is from Justin North’s “Plan B”, the tiny hole in the wall cafe next to Bécasse. I was put onto it by Y from Lemonpi who had visited earlier and told me about their fantastic Wagyu burger and $7 sausage roll. The most expensive sausage roll I’d had was the sausage roll at Bourke Street Bakery and even that was hardly what you’d call expensive at $4, and a lovely sausage roll it was. But I wasn’t too fussed about trying this one as it was almost double the price. I had no idea that Plan B existed, so tiny hole in the wall it was, I even dined at Bécasse right next to it without knowing of its existence and that it has been there for as long as the restaurant has, for 3 whole years.

Cake selection $3.50-$4 each

There are 3 tables outside that seat 2 people each, so it’s definitely more of a takeaway your lunch back to the office and read blogs during your lunch-hour kind of place. Apparently the new logo’d umbrellas call out its existence a bit better to passing trade. It’s small but it is stylishly outfitted of course. You’d expect no less from Becasse. I’ve rung ahead to pick up my lunch as we’re stopping through the city. I ordered a Wagyu burger (made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu beef) and a sandwich with pork and apple. The crisp pork belly, hoisin sauce and spring onion was out unfortunately so I made do with the pork and apple although I did toss up between that and the coronation chicken. I’d decide on a cake when I got there and I could see them up close.

Sandwich selection, $8 each

My wagyu burger was lost, apparently there was a miscommunication between the cafe and kitchen and my burger was just put on the grill when I arrived to collect it. Two suits who are standing up inside having finished their burgers get up to leave. I see the range of prepacked sandwiches and a plate of cakes and biscuits as well as designer drinks (I don’t think they even had Coke). The cakes look particularly good. The menu on the website seems to have changed slightly for the seasons. Whilst they had a caramelised mango tart, now it’s caramelised apple.

My burger is still running late and a man comes in from an outside table asking for a paper napkin. He happily declares “I’m covered in crumbs but it was all worth it, that was the best sausage roll ever! Worth every crumb!” and wipes the imaginary crumbs off himself and exits. I need no more convincing and I add a sausage roll to the order. I also buy a caramelised apple tart and a candied lemon and vanilla cookie for good measure. I get a coffee takeaway and it is fantastically good, one of the best coffees I’ve ever had (if not the best). It eventually all comes together in a brown handled paper bag and the lovely girl behind the counter apologises profusely for the delay.

Wagyu burger made with 600 day grain fed Wagyu $10

33 comments | June 9, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Quail’s eggs with Za’atar

Posted in Breakfast recipes, Cooking and Recipes, Dinner recipes, Lunch recipes

I adore Quail’s eggs. So much so that when I lived in Japan I’d buy these little speckled eggs by the tin and eat a tin for dinner, just with some sea salt and perhaps a little Japanese mayo if I felt like it. I was rather excited when I saw a tin of quail’s eggs, a much larger and cheaper tin at that, in Chinatown so I brought them home all set to have a tin (or half of it) for dinner. One bite and I knew something was wrong. There was an almost bitter, tinny taste to the eggs. I threw them all out and knew that I would have to either get fresh or buy some from a Japanese grocery store.

When we went for a drive up to Cowan one weekend, we saw some boys selling quail and chicken eggs by the side of the road along with tamarillos. I bought 6 quail eggs for $1 and 5 tamarillos for $1 (yes big spender me). The Tamarillos I made into a Tamarillo Tiramisu and as for the quail eggs, I had seen this recipe in a magazine which involved dipping them in Za’atar, a middle eastern spice and seasoning mix.

I had all of the Za’atar ingredients to hand except for the Sumac which I was pleased to find at Coles. I used a tip of Nigella’s in which you drop in a fresh, unlit match to the almost boiling water. This somehow prevents any egg white which may escape from whipping up a storm in the pot.

The quail egg membrane and shell do require a delicate touch, the quail’s egg membrane being much stronger than a chicken’s egg membrane so removing the shell and membrane without damaging the egg is a tad more difficult. But if a clumsy clod like me can do it I’m sure those more dexterous will have no issues.

These are absolutely gorgeous served at a dinner party as an appetiser, peeled and sitting up proudly in the colourful and fragrant Za’atar mix. Indeed the quantity given below is for dinner party appetisers. The yolk rich eggs really come into their own with the heady mix of spices and the floral marjoram. Sit back and watch your guests swoon at these tiny delicacies. The mix also works with chicken’s eggs but due to their size, it’s a bit more fiddly to eat so I wouldn’t recommend them for dinner parties. With the quail’s eggs it’s a quick pop into the mouth.

Quail eggs with Za’atar

24 quail eggs
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sumac
1 tablespoon marjoram (fresh or dried, I have a small marjoram plant so I used fresh)
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon seasalt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1. Boil quail eggs for 4 minutes. Cool in cold water (it won’t take long, they are very small) and peel

2. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl well.

3. Place eggs standing up on plated Za’atar mix

This is also my entry for the latest round of Monthly Mingle, an event started by Meeta of What’s For Lunch Honey? it is being hosted this month by Mansi of Fun and Food who entered my Banana bread bake off. This month’s theme is vegetarian appetisers or Hors’Doeuvres. Wish me luck!

8 comments | April 26, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Vanilla and Chocolate Bear family cupcakes

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Cupcakes, Sweet things

In a practical sense, I wanted to differentiate the vanilla custard filled vanilla & sesame cupcakes from those filled with green tea custard. So what better way aside from sticking your finger inside (so lacking decorum but fun) than to give the cupcake an entirely different look. So instead of Pandas to signify the Green tea custard, I used Bears to signify Vanilla. I do realise that a filling such as honey would have been more appropriate but I had to work with what I had. So using the same directions as on my Panda cupcakes with some rejigging of the decorations (described in the story), I present my family of Bears. A Sesame bean with vanilla bean custard filling, just in time for the April Master Baker challenge!