Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Lazy Shag Pancake

This is a just a basic pancake recipe, however it's dedicated to a group of young backpackers in Kaikoura. Lyn and I stayed at the Lazy Shag Backpackers hostel, and we got talking to some young Israeli lads. For some reason we ended up cooking pancakes at 10 pm in the communal kitchen.

So for our new Israeli friends here's how to cook pancakes -


Put 1 cup plain flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add 1 egg and stir. Slowly add milk and keep whisking until the batter is the consistency of pouring cream. Melt a tablespoon of butter and add to the batter.

Heat small amount of oil (just enough to very lightly cover the bottom of the pan) until it's hot and ladle in some of the batter. Swirl it round until it covers the bottom of the pan. Cook on both sides.

Good travelling Eyal and Ami

posted by Zoozan @ Tuesday, March 21, 2006 6 comments

Friday, March 17, 2006

Tempura of Prawn

It's a rainy afternoon in Wellington so I thought I'd add this recipe which comes from a Japanese cooking class at the Auckland Seafood Market, that Judi and I went to a couple of nights ago.

I hadn't realised how easy it was to make tempura and that we'd be able to recreate something which tasted so authentic.

Ingredients
24 large raw tiger prawns (shelled and deveined, with the tails left on)
Tempura dipping sauce (which you can buy, or make as below)
Tempura batter
2 limes

To make Tempura batter
125gm corn flour
125gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
200ml soda water
approx 200 ml ice cold water

Mix together all the ingredients up to the soda water, then add the soda water and enough of the ice cold water to make a batter of 'pouring cream' consistency. The finished batter should be a bit lumpy.

Tempura dipping sauce
310 ml dashi (instant)
50 ml Mirin
80 ml kikkoman soy sauce

combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil - remove from heat

Putting it all together
Heat oil in a wok or deep fat fryer or whatever you use to heat oil.

Make 3 small cuts in the underbelly of the prawn, turn the prawn over and push lightly on a hard surface. This stops them curling too much when they're cooking.

Have a bowl of flour and the tempura batter side by side and then holding a prawn by its tail, dip it in the flour then the batter. Still holding the prawn by its tail put in the fat and hold for a second or two before dropping in. Deep fry in batches.

Serve immediately with the tempura dipping sauce

posted by Zoozan @ Friday, March 17, 2006 1 comments

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Mince and Tatties

L has promised to cook dinner for her grandad tonight. And his request is for mince and tatties. Good, basic food and very common from his childhood in Scotland. In terms of a national dish, it's a sort of Scottish spaghetti bolognaise, without the exotic bits and spuds instead of pasta.

Ingredients

For the mince
1 tbsp vegetable oil
½ onion, chopped

2 smallish carrots sliced into discs

170g/8oz beef mince

tablespoon flour
small cup of stock

1/2 cupful of peas

For the tatties
3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tbsp butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan, over a moderate heat. Add the chopped onion and stir and cook until they are translucent. Then add the carrots and fry for a further 3 or 4 minutes.

Add the beef mince, and fry until the beef has browned. Sprinkle on the flour and stir. Add the beef stock to the pan and cook for about 30 minutes. 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the peas.

For the tatties

While the mince is cooking, put the potato into a saucepan with plenty of boiling water and boil until they are soft.

Drain them thoroughly, then mash them with the butter and seasoning.

…………..and serve

posted by Zoozan @ Sunday, March 05, 2006 1 comments