Curry Mussels

This particular dish is inspired by Luke Nguyen from Red Lantern in Surry Hills. I have always loved mussels - the meat is so sweet, juicy and succulent and the local mussels in Sydney are always plump and beautiful. You could - and probably should - make your own curry paste with chilli and shrimp paste etc. But in a pinch, the red thai curry paste from coles (get the paste not the sauce form) will do well. This is a superb winter dish.

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Ingredients:

1 kg fresh mussels
1/2 stick lemon grass - cut in 3
250 mL coconut milk
155 mL coconut cream
2 tbs thai red curry paste (add more to taste)
2 bunch baby bok choy chopped
1 chilli - chopped
2 cloves garlic - minced
Fresh parsley to taste
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 cups cooked rice for serving

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Method:

In a large wok or sauce pan, fry the garlic to release the aroma. Add stock and bring to a simmer.

Add curry paste, baby bok choy, chilli and lemon grass and let simmer 3-4 minutes. Add coconut milk and cream and bring to boil. Reduce heat.

Add mussels and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes. Mussels should just be starting to open. Add sprouts and let cook for additional 3 minutes until all of the mussels have opened. Remove from heat.

Dress with fresh parsley and stir through. Serve in bowls over fluffy cooked rice.

Master Chef Inspired Pavlova

Marshmallowy Goodness.

For Anzac Day - I decided to try and make a Pavlova, having seen Donna Hay's recipe on Masterchef. I mean what better way to celebrate a great Australian public holiday than with a great Australian dessert?

The only problem - small tiny problem - was that I didn't own a beater. And when I saw those dreaded instructions: "whip egg whites to glossy, satiny peaks" I knew I was in trouble.

About 30 minutes of hard core whipping later - I had my glossy peaks and my pavlova in the oven. Feeling quite proud of myself, I went on to read about the topping.

"300 mL cream, well whipped"

Crap.

(turned out okay, but definitely investing the $30 in a mixer!)

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Ingredients:

4 egg whites
300 g caster sugar
1 tsp vinegar
3 tbs corn flour
1 tsp vanilla
-- and if you don't have a mixer - a fork and some strong forearms!

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Lay out a piece of baking paper on a baking tray and draw a 20 cm circle, if desired.

Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly sift in sugar and continue beating until the peaks are stiff and satiny. Mix in corn flour. Fold vanilla and vinegar into the mixture.

Mound your mixture into the centre of your baking paper and bake for 25 minutes. Turn off the oven and allow pavolova to cool in the oven.

For the topping, use about 300 ml of well whipped cream and seasonal berries, kiwis, passionfruit etc.

Croquembouche!

Over Easter long weekend, I finally managed to tackle it - the elusive croquembouche. I started at about 1 pm (this time without a dinner party or non-cooks trying to tell me what to do going on in the background). Four hours, eight eggs and a burnt sauce pan later (which I managed to scrub out - whew) - I had it - a 2 foot tall croquembouche!

A croquembouche is essentially puff pastries (or choux pastries in the book), filled with custard then stacked into a tall cone shape held together by rich thick caramel. Event croquembouches use about 100 puffs and are about 3-4 ft tall. You can rent or buy a croquembouche cone from a catering shop to get the cone shape. Or you can do what I did - rolled up some newspaper into a cone and line it with baking paper.

It took about 40 choux patries (many of which were quite flat and not very well puffed, but they were okay once I turned them on their sides). Though on the small side - the results were certainly delicious!

One word of warning though, choux pastry and caramel do NOT keep in the fridge. We put 1/2 our croquembouche in the fridge thinking we could save it for later (there were only three of us that night as I was afraid of another eminent disaster). Unfortunately, I discovered the next day a gooey sticky pile of pastry with runny caramel on top. Very not cool.

(will post ingredients and methods soon!)
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