Though this is such a simple dish, it has plenty of flavour. Try to use the sweet, juicy and plump South Australian mussels which need no scrubbing and preparing. This is a great dish for sharing, with a pan on the table, along with plenty of crusty bread for mopping up the sauce.
100g butter
125g speck bacon, diced
3 golden shallots, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
A few sprigs thyme, leaves picked
1 bay leaf
1kg black mussels, cleaned
200ml dry white wine
250ml PHILADELPHIA Cream for Cooking, a cream alternative
½ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Crusty bread, for serving
Melt butter in a large saucepan on medium heat. Cook bacon, golden shallots, onion, garlic, thyme leaves and bay leaf for 5 minutes until just soft. Add mussels, stir to combine and increase heat to high. Add wine and cook, covered, for 3-5 minutes or until mussels start to open. Stir through PHILLY Cream for Cooking and bring to boil.
Remove from heat, stir through parsley and season to taste. Divide between 4 large bowls or serve straight from the pan and let everyone help themselves along with the crusty bread.
Tip: Don’t season until the very end – it’s unlikely you’ll need to add salt because of the high salt content in the mussels and the speck or bacon.
Another tip: Don’t throw away mussels that haven’t opened. It’s really a hug waste and they’re totally fine. Just add closed mussels back to the pot for one minute. If they still don’t open, pry them open with a knife. They are FINE. Mussels will smell absolutely awful if they’re off, and they very very rarely are. I only every discard mussels that are cracked open before cooking.
Is that the time? For heavens sake the weeks and days and, yes, months have flown by. Japan, the sprawling city of explorable gastronomic nooks, was of course amazing, and Christmas too. Oh dear. Back on track and planted at my desk, I’ll start posting on the various skiing, food and travelling adventures. Meanwhile, thank you so much to blogger extraordinaries Jeroxie and Simon Food Favourites and Noodlies and Food, Booze and Shoes for their time and energy last weekend while I rambled about various food tips and made us lunch. We went along to the new Concrete Blonde in Kings Cross, where my healthy lunch was totally upstaged by a whole roasting lamb on the spit, and chatted about food styling and photography. I made three simple dishes – a tuna nicoise crostini, a beetroot and broad bean salad and mussels in a cream and speck sauce – and then we shot them. Me being an ambassador for Philadelphia, the gist of the day was to include the Cream for Cooking and cream cheese products into the day. I mainly just loved hanging out with the bloggers, using the incredible kitchen at Concrete Blonde, and sharing cooking and photography tips between some very clever people.
Jeroxie took a little video of me picking through a bunch of beetroot in search of some decent soft little leaves to add to our salad.
And this is Noodlies’, or Thang Ngo’s, much longer video of me making the mussels. Thanks for posting you two! I realise now why you were holding your phones and cameras so still – those pesky video cameras! I hope it makes sense, and hope it didn’t feel quite so rambly on the day.
Meanwhile, I’ll post the recipe for the mussels here post haste!
This is a tweaked version of a recipe that was published in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living yesterday, in my column The Minimalist.
Braised lamb is a quintessential spring dish that can be a real celebration of a new season, or unbearably heavy. The difference has a little to do with the lamb, and a lot to do with the vegetables and other additions. Here, cinnamon and eggplant turn would-be lamb stew into a spiced, light dish that sings in the new season. I had a version of this dish in Morocco, where the vinegar-drenched sweetness of raisins cut through the richness of the lamb, while lemon juice and fresh mint kept things positively joyous.
One of the great paradoxes of the modern grocery shop is that the best cuts of meat are sometimes the cheapest. The fat-marbled lamb shoulder cut is forgiving for being able to cook more or less forever and still be soft enough to cut with a fork. Most pantries are stocked full of the basic spices used here, which are worth having on hand.
The challenge in this dish comes with the browning of the lamb, essential for any flavoursome one-pot meat dish. Most braises begin with browning, and this is no different. The addition of stock also bumps up the flavour. The easy technique comes in the long slow cooking, and once all browning is done the dish can be left alone for more than one hour to do its magic.
1/4 cup raisins or dried apricots, chopped2 tbsp red or white wine vinegar5 Lebanese eggplants2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil500g lamb shoulder (boneless meat)2 large onions, finely chopped2 garlic cloves, finely chopped1 x 400g can tomatoes1/2 cup chicken stock1 tsp ground coriander seeds1 tsp cayenne pepper2 tsp paprika1 tsp ground cumin1 tsp ground cinnamon1/2 bunch mint leaves, roughly choppedMint leaves, to garnishJuice of ½ lemon
Marinate the raisins in the vinegar in a bowl, set aside. Cut the eggplants into 2cm thick slices, then sprinkle with sea salt and let stand for half and hour in a colander to draw out the bitter flavours.
Heat half the olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan and fry the eggplant in batches until golden on all sides. Drain on paper towel and set aside. Trim the lamb, if your butcher has not done it for you, and cut into 4cm dice. Heat the remaining oil in a heavy-based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and lightly brown the lamb in batches. Remove lamb from the pan and set aside.
Sweat the onion in the same pan over a very low heat for about 10 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and some sea salt and cook, stirring for a minute, then add the tomato, raisin mixture, browned lamb, stock and spices. Bring to a very gentle simmer, cover and cook for 1 ½ hours, or until the lamb is soft and easily pulls apart with two forks.
When ready to serve, add eggplant, lemon juice and chopped mint to the pan, and toss together until well combined. Divide the lamb among 4 large bowls, garnish with mint leaves, and serve immediately with cous cous.
This is my totally easy, throw it all together starter to have just after drinks and just before some more fussed over main. It’s half way between a ceviche and a tartare, partly cooked by a little lime juice but not overly soaked in it. Besides, when you have such a perfect slab of sashimi grade yellowfin tuna (from Martin’s Seafood in Balmain), it would be a waste to cook it and spin the whole lot in other flavours.
Here we have 450g yellowfin tuna, trimmed of skin and those bloody dark red patches that are not so silken. Chop into 5mm cubes, then add to that 2 finely chopped golden shallot, a pinch of dried chilli flakes, juice and grated zest of of 1 lime, and the finely chopped flesh of 1 roasted capsicum, which you can buy in little jars doused in olive oil (from Essential Ingredient), or just do yourself (hold with metal tongs over a flame until blistered and black all over, then shove it in a paper bag and seal for 5-10 minutes – peel when cool). Drizzle the lot with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and cover and leave in the fridge for up to an hour. Toss through 1 avocado, cut into dice the same size as the tuna, then season to taste. I serve this dish in little shot glasses with tiny spoons for a crowd, but it’s also great pushed into small ramekins and turned out on individual plates for each guest, scattered with baby herbs and another drizzle of olive oil and lime juice.
The omelet is an oops-we’ve-run-out-of-everything lifesaver. If all you have are a few eggs sitting alone in the fridge, you have dinner, or breakfast. A traditional French omelet of two-to-three eggs per person should be beaten, cooked and served in 90 seconds, the experts say. In respect of this culinary folklore, have the filling completely ready before you cook the eggs. An omelette should be served baveuse, cooked by still soft, never well-done.
Ages 7-12: I heart eggs omelet
This is the height of culinary chic, seven-year-old Ava learns as she gently beats the eggs with a fork. This is the most essential basic skill for any budding chef and the cornerstone of French gastronomic tradition. If you can master the art of a perfect omelet, you can step proudly forward in any kitchen, knowing that you can create a masterpiece out of a few simple ingredients. “I don’t know about all that,” Ava says. “I just like eggs.”
Beat the eggs with a fork just enough to blend the yolks and whites. Season to taste. Meanwhile, blanch the asparagus in a saucepan of boiling, salted water for 3-5 minutes. Refresh under cold water, cut stems in half and set aside. Melt the butter in a medium-sized non-stick pan over a medium heat, tilting the pan to film the base and sides with butter. When the butter starts to colour, pour in the eggs. With a fork, pull the edges of the egg towards the centre as it thickens. Let the liquid part run into the vacant spaces. Quickly repeat so there is no more liquid, but the eggs are still soft. Scatter the cheese and asparagus over the eggs. Lift the handle of the pan so the omelette rolls over itself and on to a warmed plate, then serve immediately. Serves 2.
Boys at elite English school Eton invented this dish. Apparently the top-hat wearing children smashed the school pudding of meringues, strawberries and cream to make this downright Eton mess. Let the juice of the crushed strawberries and raspberries dribble down the inside of glasses, and add less cream for a healthier version.
Ages 3-7: Downright Eton Mess
Three-year-old Lulu looks up at me as if I’ve done something incredibly naughty. With mouth open and eyes wide, humoured and worried at once, she says: “You broke them!” The second she cottons on to the fact we are allowed to destroy the perfect meringues we’d made, she’s all-hands-in embracing the task, only slightly withholding her obvious delight at the mess we were making. As luck would have it, this recipe combines two of Lulu’s favourite things, “raspberries” and “pavlova”. Close enough.
Whites from 3 large eggs
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 cup castor sugar
1 punnet fresh strawberries
1 cup frozen raspberries
250 ml cream, whipped
To make the meringues, preheat the oven to 120C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, or a whisk, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat on the highest speed, until stiff peaks are formed but still soft and a little wet. Gradually beat in two tablespoons of sugar and beat for two to three minutes, until very stiff. Fold in the remaining sugar using a metal spatula or spoon, until lightly mixed. Using two large spoons, dollop the mixture onto the trays to form meringue shapes, leaving a space of at least two centimetres between each. Bake for 1½ hours, then remove from oven and let cool. To make the Eton mess, place four meringues in a plastic bag and crush until broken into two-centimetre shapes. Combine half the strawberries and all the raspberries in a bowl and mash with a fork, until juicy and pulped, then add cream and broken meringues. Carefully spoon the mixture into six glasses, then top with remaining strawberries, sliced, and serve immediately. Serves 6
It was a perfect 22 degrees in Sydney and I couldn’t get a sesame chicken salad my mother used to make out of my mind. It’s a light Asian-style salad, all crunchy and tangy, with a creamy sesame dressing tying the crunch together with the soft poached chicken. The chicken is still warm when you serve it, tossed with toasted sesame seeds, chopped coriander and finely sliced French shallots and cucumber. This is a perfect Spring evening meal.
You need to start this recipe by getting everything in place – as the French call mis en place - and then just toss it all together and serve. Use organic free range chicken for this – you really should be able to taste the chicken, and nothing tastes better, or has a better texture, than when using birds that have scratched and pecked and which have not been filled with horrible horrible hormones and chemicals. This recipe serves 2 as a main, or 4 as a starter.
2 free range, organic chicken breasts2 tbsp unhulled tahini1 tsp light soy saucejuice of 1 lemon1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil2 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled and finely sliced1 large French shallot, peeled and finely sliced1 tbsp sesame seeds, dry roasted1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped
First, poach chicken breasts in a court bouillon (a quick stock, made from water simmered with some peppercorns, a few onion slices and a bay leaf). Gently simmer the court bouillon, add the whole chicken fillets and poach over a low heat for 6-8 minutes. When cooked, the juices should run clear when the chicken is pierced with a knife. Set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, to make the dressing, combine tahini, soy sauce, lemon juice and olive oil together and whisk with a fork. Set aside. Then shred the chicken fillets by pulling the breasts apart with your fingers, shredding the chicken along its natural grain until you’re left with thin strips. Combine the chicken, cucumber, shallot and dressing in a bowl and toss together, season with salt and pepper. Scatter with coriander and sesame seeds and serve.
This is my good-intentions, use-everything-up-in-the-fridge, vegetable salad. Just feel terrible terrible when I have gorgeous organic vegetables going all overdue in the crisper, so this morning I whipped out everything I could find, all wintery seasonal, and made this…
There was enough for lunch, and I packed the rest away for lunch tomorrow. I had some fresh broad beans which were still at their peak, and gorgeous in-season fennel. This super easy salad requires a pan for frying, a drizzle of olive oil, and a couple of spoonfuls of homemade pesto. I made the pesto using a bunch of parsley I had, plus some pine nuts, a couple of small squares of fetta, 1 clove of raw garlic and salt and pepper, all whizzed up in a food processor (it seriously takes 5 seconds). I blanched the broad beans in a little salted water, and just tossed it all together with a handful of mint leaves. Squeeze half a lemon over the top. All herby and fabulous. And assuming we’re not worrying about the fat from the gorgeous extra virgin olive oil, this is one of the healthiest fast foods around.
This was the BBC Australian Good Food magazine’s stall at the Good Food and Wine Festival in Sydney this weekend. Got backstage and had the incredible privilege of chatting to Kylie Kwong about her new sustainable cookbook, and Masterchef’s Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, all of whom contribute to the magazine as well. But it was on stage in the food demonstrations that the really really cool things were happening. Here’s a glimpse…
George Calombaris’ wonderful, at times amusing (especially when he impersonated the Masterchef contestants my pretending to burst into tears about his love and passion for the dish he had made) demo included a Barramundi with Calamari Coleslaw (pic above, recipe below), which is essentially poached and finely sliced calamari with very finely sliced fennel salad. The sustainable barramundi is one of the jewels of our oceans. Get the non-farmed variety, it tastes so much better and it’s not overfished. George’s recipe (below) serves six.
2 limes, sliced
1 lemon, sliced, plus 2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sea salt
400g cleaned calamari
6 x 180g barramundi fillets, skin on
2 tbsp olive oil, plus 2 tbsp extra
20g butter
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, very finely sliced
2 eschalots, peeled, very finely sliced
1 cup flat leaf parsley
herb sprigs and flowers, to serve
1. Heat lime, lemon slices and 4 cups water in a large pan on high. Bring to boil. Add salt and reduce heat to low. When simmering, cook calamari for 1 min, until opaque. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a tray. Refrigerate until cold.
2. Use a small, sharp knife to score skin of fish. Season well. Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan on high. Cook fish skin side down, basting with oil occasionally, for 3 minutes, until crisp and golden. Turn fish and add butter to pan. Cook for another 1 min, until cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, finely slice calamari into long strips. Toss with fennel, eschalot, parsley leaves, lemon juice and extra oil until well combined.
4. Divide salad and fish between serving plates. Serve with herb sprigs and flowers, if using.
Pics by Kate GibbsMasterchefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan (top), as well as demos by Kylie Kwong and Suzanne Gibbs (second from top) and Margaret Fulton. Calombaris cooked a barramundi with calamari “coleslaw” and semolina custard pastries (pic above). Calombaris with The Press Club head chef TravisMcAuley (pic above), and the kitchen the chefs used…
More on Kylie Kwong’s fried rice, soft boiled eggs and dried fried beans with miso and sesame in an upcoming post.
This pink and green Scandanavian cured fish is, to me, Christmas. The smell of the dill and the sugary cured trout (which I find less strong in flavour to salmon), with that hint of vodka, is what comes out with Champagne for breakfast on Christmas morning in the Gibbs house. It’s may not be Christmas [...]
Alex Herbert, of Bird Cow Fish in Surry Hills fame, cooked me an omelette while I was standing right there in front of her. She used heirloom tomatoes tossed with the cherry variety, finely sliced Spanish onion and lots of parsley, all marinated in their own juices. And using three eggs she pulled together a [...]
Article published in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living today… It takes allsorts It’s been giving children purple tongues for years but now liquorice is the new black, writes Kate Gibbs.
It’s the weekend, unofficially, and I am going to celebrate by planning the cooking ahead of time. Strawberry shortcakes (above) on Sunday, perhaps with champagne, after a morning sailing on sparkly Sydney harbour (or, let’s be honest, torrential rain and high-seas-hit-you-sideways windy Sydney harbour this week). Strawberry shortcakes are not at all wintery but I [...]
The Kitchen Inc. blog is written and edited by Kate Gibbs - a journalist, author and cook.
Food, travel, design >> How, when entwined together, these things inspire our daily culinary experiences >> The Kitchen Inc. covers food, kitchen-based inspiration, and workable design as it impacts our dining, eating, cooking lives.
Kate Gibbs writes a weekly column for Good Living in The Sydney Morning Herald on cooking with kids: Kitchen Cadets. She is the restaurant reviewer for Sunday Life magazine in the Sun Herald. She is a regular contributor to the SMH on food and travel.
Kate is a co-author of The Foodies Guide to Sydney 2011 and 2012 and is a contributor to SMH Everyday Eats 2011 and 2012 and Good Cafe Guide 2012. Kate has 10 years' journalism experience and has written for Russh, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Frankie and others. The interest in journalism began at London's The Evening Standard newspaper. Her first cookbook, The Thrifty Kitchen, was published in 2009. Kate's mother Suzanne Gibbs and grandmother Margaret Fulton are also in the food business.
In The Kitchen Inc, Kate writes restaurant, bar and cafe reviews, and shows the most interesting and inspiring places to eat and gastro-explore. Kate reviews new food-relevant design and books, she writes about new trends in cooking, how different ingredients are being used by our top chefs and cooks, and how to use these ideas at home.
