Dinner for 24

 

My passion for cooking has been burning from an early age. My opportunity to really put it into action, and put it to the test came when a friend of mine was doing a leadership course.

At the time I was enrolled in a cooking course through the local community school. The course was at my friend’s suggestion – I decided to finally invest some real time in my hobby and signed up for it.

Then thanks to a broken down car and work travel I only made the first two lessons. But that was all I needed really – all I needed to believe that I was now an expert in both Moroccan and French cuisine, lessons 1 & 2.

So after my friend told of her plans to host a ‘talent night’ – caught up in the excitement I volunteered both my small apartment for the event and my cooking skills as master chef for the evening. 24 guests in total.

So armed with a rented fridge, an electric stove where one of the elements didn’t work, a knife set from K-Mart, two cooking lessons, and a bucket load of ambition, I set out to cook a full French meal for 24 people.

A Scottish historian once said “I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.”

...and I certainly wasn’t bored. So thus began my ambitious plan.

The French claim to be the first to come up with the multi-course progressive meal, with an entree, mains, and then dessert. But three courses? So passé! Isn’t that the standard structure of most menus in most restaurants throughout the western world? C’mon Frenchies, only three? What’s a good meal without something to distinguish it from others? And this isn’t just some restaurant, this is my place.

So four courses it is!

The early beginnings of the degustation menu perhaps???

Menu

• Entree – Chicken and Mushroom soup.
• Main no. 1 – Mussels in white wine sauce.
• Main no. 2 – Chicken in red wine sauce.
• Dessert – Apple Clafoutis with custard

Not to forget the sides – beans and chat potatoes.

Was I worried? Not at all. Though a tinge of doubt entered my mind when I ordered ahead for the mussels at my local seafood supplier. He immediately grabbed the phone and called his supplier for a special order of additional mussels to counter for the shortfall. I’m guessing this doesn’t happen every day.

Then at the supermarket loading up on mushrooms. People started pushing in and grabbing for mushrooms. Just because I was cleaning out most of the tray. Surely the supermarket must have more out the back, shouldn’t they? It felt like the jostling at the local department store over stock-take sale bargains.

Then my family decided to pop over the night before – on my prep night. So why not go out to the pub for the evening?

Thankfully friends came to the rescue.

Before I knew it I had three tables to seat 8 each, 24 chairs (all set with covers and sashes), enough cutlery and plates to go around (provided there was a washup between a couple of the courses) and three other stoves in the nearby suburbs helping me cook up a storm.

But the show’s not over until the chef finishes service for the night.

So I arrive back from the pub on Friday night at 11pm and begin prepping, and keep going on my prep until 4am.

Prep’s not finished so I decide to get 3 hours sleep and get up at 7am and continue. I prep and cook all through the day and everything is ready for service by 5:30pm. Just enough time to dress up in my pressed shirt and bow-tie ready for the talent night. Thankfully my performance expectations are limited to dinner.

The results were up and down.

Personally I loved the mussels in white wine sauce but I learnt an important food lesson that night – not all food is for all people. There were some that passed but others that ate a double helping, so thankfully the quantities worked themselves out.

Then there was the chicken in red-wine sauce. Another important lesson – keep an eye on the stove – burnt at the base of the pan. Recoupable but not my best performance.

Then there was the dessert – a hit! I would have been disappointed otherwise because this dish really was from scratch. I peeled, chopped, and stewed the apples myself and made the baked custard mixture with the raw ingredients and baked each clafoutis individually in my run-down oven.

But the highlight of the night turn out to be the chicken and mushroom soup. I made a major miscalculation when first cooking this soup in my cooking class and subsequently won the vote for the best soup of the night. Not strictly French in the end but very tasty. Recipe coming soon...

What a night. Even though things weren’t ‘perfect’ and I look back now thinking ‘what was I doing?’ and even ‘what was I thinking?’ it was a fantastic experience and one that I would repeat. And that I did.
 

Winter Bolognese

My winter style Bolognese is a richer sauce, using beef instead of the pork / veal combination and red wine instead of white. The addition of brie to serve adds a wonderful creaminess that complements the rich sauce. Just the thing for a night at home with a good glass of red.

Ingredients

• Pappardelle
• Olive Oil
• 1 Carrot - Diced
• 1 Stick of Celery - Diced
• 1 Onion - Diced
• 3 Fresh Bay Leaves (dried if you don't have fresh)
• 4 Cloves for Garlic
• 2 Cloves - Ground
• 2 Cups of Red Wine (preferably Shiraz)
• 1kg of Beef Mince
• 2 x 700ml Bottles of Italian Passata
• 2 x 400g Cans of Whole Italian Tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Basil Leaves to Serve
• Slices of Brie to Serve

Process

1. Heat a drizzle of the olive oil in a pan.

2. Add the carrot, celery, onion and begin to slowly sweat off until well cooked through and translucent.

After a few minutes also add in the bay leaves and sweat through.

3. In a frypan, begin browning the meat in batches and set aside until the aromatics are ready.

4. When the aromatics are ready, add the ground clove and cook for a minute or two releasing the flavour.

5. Add the garlic and cook off, being careful not to burn.

6. Add the cooked beef mince and stir through.

7. Add the two bottles of Italian passata and the two cans of tomatoes and stir through.

8. If mince is still remaining continue browning off in batches and add directly to the other pan.

9. Add the two cups of red wine to the frypan, deglaze, boil off the alcohol and reduce slightly.

10. Tip the wine mix into the other pan and mix through.

11. Add a pinch of salt, a dozen good grinds of pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil and stir through.

12. Simmer until the sauce has boiled down and is rich without being too runny or too thick.

13. When complete remove the bay leaves.

14. Prepare and cook pappardelle.

Serve in pasta bowls on top of pappardelle, topped with generous slices of brie and fresh torn basil leaves.

Of Interest

• Timing and the heat of your pans are important when cooking this dish:
• When cooking through the aromatics use a medium heat - be sure not to burn the onion as it can become bitter. The same applies to the garlic - just cook it through until it starts to smell sweetened.
• When cooking the meat in a separate pan you want the pan to be really hot. You want to cook the meat so it starts to caramelise or brown. If you have brown bits of the meat sticking to the bottom of the frypan then you're on track.
• This is not really a 'one-pot dish'. By adding the meat to the aromatics directly you can still cook the meat through but you create more of a Bolognese stew and lose the opportunity to fry off the meat creating that wonderful caramelisation.
• When you deglaze the pan make sure you use a wooden spoon or your favourite non-scratch utensil and give the fry-pan a good going over when you have put the wine in there. The idea is to wash and rub off the caramelisation that has stuck to the bottom of the fry-pan so you can add these flavours to the Bolognese mix.
• Make sure you use the 'whole' Italian tomatoes in the can. Using the whole tomatoes just seems to create a better flavour in this dish than using the 'diced' tomatoes in the can. The whole tomatoes will break down in the sauce as it simmers through.
• After removing the bay leaves you might want to work the sauce through with a masher just to blend through to provide a smooth sauce - or then again you might not want to - leaving some tomato chunks in for a rustic styled sauce.

Summer Bolognese

 

I cook a summer style Bolognese as well as a winter style Bolognese so I can enjoy Bolognese all year 'round.

Ingredients

 

• Pappardelle
• Olive Oil
• 2 Anchovy Fillets
• 1 Carrot - Diced
• 1 Stick of Celery - Diced
• 1 Onion - Diced
• 3 Fresh Bay Leaves (dried if you don't have fresh)
• 4 Cloves for Garlic
• 2 Cloves - Ground
• 1 Pinch of Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Cup of White Wine
• 500g of Pork Mince
• 500g of Veal Mince
• 2 x 700ml Bottles of Italian Passata
• Salt
• Marjoram Leaves to Serve
• Parmesan Cheese to Serve

Process

 
1. Heat a drizzle of the olive oil in a pan.

2. Add the carrot, celery, onion and begin to slowly sweat off until well cooked through and translucent.

After a few minutes also add in the bay leaves and the anchovies, cooking through so the anchovies are dissolved.

3. In a frypan, begin browning the meat in batches and set aside until the aromatics are ready.

4. When the aromatics are ready, add the ground clove and cinnamon and cook for a minute or two releasing the flavours.

5. Add the garlic and cook off, being careful not to burn.

6. Add the pork and veal mince and stir through .

7. Add the two bottles of Italian passata and stir through.

8. If mince is still remaining continue browning off in batches and add directly to the other pan.

9. Add the cup of wine to the frypan, deglaze, boil off the alcohol and reduce slightly.

10. Tip the wine mix into the other pan and mix through.

11. Bring to the boil, add a pinch of salt and stir through. Simmer until passata has boiled down and the sauce is rich without being too runny or too thick.

12. Prepare and cook pappardelle.

Serve in pasta bowls on top of pappardelle, topped with marjoram leaves and shaved parmesan.

Of Interest

 

• Timing and the heat of your pans are important when cooking this dish:
• When cooking through the aromatics use a medium heat - be sure not to burn the onion as it can become bitter. The same applies to the spices (don't burn) and the garlic - just cook it through until it starts to smell sweetened.
• When cooking the meat in a separate pan you want the pan to be really hot. You want to cook the meat so it starts to caramelise or brown. If you have brown bits of the meat sticking to the bottom of the frypan then you're on track.
• This is not really a 'one-pot dish'. By adding the meat to the aromatics directly you can still cook the meat through but you create more of a Bolognese stew and lose the opportunity to fry off the meat creating that wonderful caramelisation.
• When you deglaze the pan make sure you use a wooden spoon or your favourite non-scratch utensil and give the fry-pan a good going over when you have put the wine in there. The idea is to wash and rub off the caramelisation that has stuck to the bottom of the fry-pan so you can add these flavours to the Bolognese mix.
• Don't forget the marjoram! Its wonderful fragrance seems to go so well with the veal and particularly the pork in this dish.
• One more thing I like to add is a small drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over the top of the finished dish - extra virgin is not so good for cooking with but by drizzling it over at the end the oil takes in the gentle heat of the dish and creates an amazing aroma characteristic of many Italian dishes.

 

Pappardelle

 
What would a cooking blog be without a recipe for Bolognese?

And what would an obsessive cook's recipe for Bolognese be without the recipe for pasta? - in this case pappardelle.

In Italian the name 'pappardelle' is taken from the word 'pappare' meaning to 'eat ravenously' or to 'gobble up'.

Why Fresh Pasta?

Why fresh pasta you may ask? For the flavour and the texture I would answer.

There is nothing like the flavour of fresh pasta.

In Italy there are some well loved pasta recipes that may seem simplistic - pasta with garlic and oil or 'aglio e olio' in Italian - but that's because the main flavour is the pasta itself. Preparing fresh pasta shows how fantastic pasta can really be as the highlight of the meal rather than just the accompaniment.

Ingredients

 

• 150g Pasta Flour
  
• 150g Semolina
  
• 2 Whole Eggs
  
• 2 Egg Yolks
  
• Olive Oil
  

 

Process

1. Mix the pasta flour and semolina together in a bowl.

2. Add the two eggs and further two egg yolks to the flour mix.

3. Add a short drizzle of olive oil.

4. Mix the eggs, oil, and flour mix in the bowl until it comes together.

5. Tip out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough has come together and is springy to the touch, adding flour if the dough is too wet.

6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 4 hours before rolling.

7. Cut the dough into four pieces and roll through a pasta machine until the desired thickness.

8. Cut the pasta dough into ribbons 1 inch wide - this is your papardelle.

9. When needed cook in boiling salted water.

 

Of Interest

 

• Some pasta recipes use different amounts of pasta flour and semolina / egg yolks, claiming the more semolina and egg yolks the better the pasta. By adding more semolina and egg yolks the pasta will have a stronger flavour - whether that's good for you all depends on your taste. I've gone 50/50 which I think gives the best result.
  
• When mixing the dough you don't want it to be too wet or too dry. Again find the middle ground. This is difficult to explain because it's a very sensory thing - however it will become evident when you try to roll the dough:
  
  • If the dough is too wet it will slip in the rollers when you are trying to roll it.
    
  • If the dough is too dry it will 'crumble' through the rollers and may become patchy and full of holes.
    
• Ensure you leave the dough to rest in the fridge! Every time I have not rested the dough it becomes very temperamental through the rollers. It is a dream to roll out compared when it is left in the fridge to rest.
  
• Take your dough out of the fridge a half hour or more before rolling - it's much easier to roll dough at room temperature rather than cold.
  
• When rolling your dough try laminating it - flatten it with a rolling pin first so it runs through the machine easier - and then fold the dough and run through again. Re-fold and re-roll a few times. This seems to strengthen the sheet of pasta and allows you to achieve a more consistent rectangular shape.
  
• Cutting the dough into four pieces works for my pasta machine but might not work for yours. Your may need more or less depending on your pasta machine and your technique. I cut the dough into four pieces, roll, and then halve each piece when completely rolled out before slicing into ribbons. From the recipe I end up with eight sheets of pasta that each turn into 5 ribbons of pappardelle.
  
• Ensure that the pasta is floured through the rolling process. As your pasta rolls out it tends to like to stick to things - like the bench. Keeping it floured keeps it manageable.
  
• When cooking the pasta ensure you use a lot of water.
  
• Try not to overcook fresh pasta. It only needs 2 to 4 minutes to cook. Fresh pasta should still be 'al dente'. The pasta you pull out of the water should look similar to the pasta you put into the water. If cooked to the point where it increases in size and becomes very white in colour the pasta may have been overcooked and can become 'gluggy'.
  
• When removed from the water I give my pasta a quick drain and then toss with olive oil to ensure it doesn't stick together before being plated.
  

 

Why a Cooking Blog?

 
Ever wish you had rich a food heritage?

Perhaps like Neil Perry - with a butcher for a Dad who wasn't afraid to mingle with the Chinese in the '60s and show Neil the balance and harmony of Chinese cuisine. Perhaps like Luke Mangan who's early exit from school, influence of his older brother, and amazing work ethic at such a young age granted him the opportunity to work and learn under Herman Schneider. Perhaps like Kylie Kwong who learned the art and fundamentals of Cantonese cooking under her mother's side of the family, and then went on to gain experience cooking at Rockpool, Wokpool, and Restaurant Manfredi.

I wish I had a rich food heritage.

But then again wishing doesn't make it so.

I inherited a sensitive palate from my father and a childhood of bland english-style food from my mother.

And so... "That which does not kill us makes us stronger".

After leaving home and the country and moving to Sydney I discovered a whole new world, the promised land of flavour sensations. Flowing with milk and honey. Also flowing with Thai curries, Malaysian laksa, Japanese sushi, fresh fresh pasta, amazing tasting pizzas that were not from chain stores, and chinese food that was markedly different in flavour and texture to the chinese served at the country bowling club.

My family thought I was crazy to eat raw fish and tofu among other things. "If you don't cook the fish right through it could kill you!" shouted my mother. My brother gave me a live demonstration on his kitchen bench of how tofu bounces, and (as everyone should ought to have known) should thus not be eaten.

But then they went back to their burnt chops and beans that had been cooked bi-carb soda, and I was glad I was not there.

So why a cooking blog?

I have been cooking and trying out different recipes for many years now, but have never collected them in one place. So here's my chance.

But then there's you as well. I hope that you will enjoy the recipies and adventures I publish here, and maybe even give me a little feedback - your thoughts and experiences.

With all that collective wisdom - who knows - I might even end up one day with a rich food heritage.