Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Risotto

I have this strange love for zucchinis. Part of me loves them because they look deceptively like cucumbers but are in fact quite different from them - almost prankster-like and cheeky. Wikipedia tells me that they're the swollen ovaries of the female zucchini flower. What the?

Anyway, while I would have been perfectly happy smacking my face in a bowl of zucchini and parmesan risotto, JL was visiting for lunch which meant that he probably would have cried on the sight of my almost rabbit-food-like-food. That's when my bags of frozen seafood came in handy.

So here it is folks, my Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Mussel, Prawn Risotto. And Parmesan, of course.

You'll need about six mussels, more if you like them lots. You'll also need about a tonne of peeled prawns. A tonne here means about 100g. In retrospect I think 100g of prawn shells on top would have been excellent. You'll see why.

You'll also need 1/2 an onion, 1 clove of garlic...

and 2 zucchinis, grated.

Saute the mussel and half of the prawns (or prawn shells if you have them) with a little garlic and olive oil until they change colour. Don't overcook anything (including the garlic) or you'll be kicking yourself.

Pour contents into a small pot and pour about 1L of chicken stock in. Add salt to taste and bring to boil. Proceed to simmer the stock for at least 30 minutes (you may need to add more stock).

The stock should change colour. If you had prawn shells you'd soon realise that this stock is like the big-O in a pot. Seafood stock is totally full of wins.

Once you are happy with the stock, proceed with the risotto.

Saute 1/2 onion. I burnt mine because I got distracted by my temper. Don't make the same mistake - it's just not worth it.

Once the onions are transparent, add 3 cups of arborio rice and continue sauteing. Sauteing? Sautaying? Guh. I have no idea.

Then one ladle at a time, add the prawn and mussel stock into the rice, stirring gently to allow the rice to absorb all the liquid before adding the next ladle. Proceed until the grains are almost fully saturated and won't soak up any more liquid.

Add grated zucchini to the pot and let it cook slightly.

Give it a good stir so that it doesn't catch on the bottom. Just be gentle though.

Pour the remaining seafood stock into the pan and let it simmer with the lid on. Make sure you have a pot of chicken stock additionally on the side bubbling away. Risotto needs lots of liquid. If the rice dries out, add another ladle of liquid into the pan.

Once the rice is almost done, (taste test is the key) add the seafood contents of the stock into the pan. These should be quite tender.

In a separate pan, saute remaining prawns until coloured.

Throw into pan and cook until rice is tender. Once done, turn off the heat and add a cup of freshly grated parmesan.

Then just serve with a little cracked pepper.


Zucchini, Mussel, Prawn, Risotto
Serves 3

Buy:
2 Zucchinis, grated
3 cups Arborio Rice
100g Green Prawns
100g Prawn Shells (if you have them)
6 Mussels
1/2 Onion, finely diced
1 Garlic, minced
1L Chicken Stock (to use for Seafood Stock)
1L Chicken Stock, extra
1 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
Cracked Pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

Make:

1. Saute mussels, half of the prawns, prawn shells in a pan with a little garlic and oil until colour changes
2. Tip contents into a pot and pour 1L of chicken stock. Add salt and bring to boil then simmer for 30minutes
3. In a saute pan, saute onions until transparent
4. Add rice and coat thoroughly with oil and cook slightly
5. One ladle at a time, add seafood stock and allow rice to fully absorb liquid before adding another ladle
6. Once fully saturated, pour remaining seafood stock into pan and bring to simmer
7. Stir in zucchini and allow to cook briefly while stirring
   
8. Put lid back on and simmer. Add extra stock slowly as risotto thickens and expands
9. When rice is almost cooked, add contents of stock (minus shells if you added them) into the pan, continue to simmer with lid on while adding stock
10. In a separate pan, saute remaining prawns until cooked
11. Add prawn into risotto and cook until rice is no longer has a rock centre
12. Add freshly grated parmesan and serve with cracked pepper
    

Pork Egg Rolls in Broth

I'm going to warn you now. This is one helluva time-consuming recipe, but highly suited to being made in large amounts for dinner parties and the likes of that.

I recently visited Shanghai Nights in Ashfield and tried their egg wontons. It was scrump-diddly-umptious to say the least, and it wasn't long before I was dying to do my own little rendition of it.

Let's just cut to the chase shall we?

First you'll need to crack about a half dozen eggs.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of chicken powder. This is the only flavouring that will go into the eggs, so make sure you do it. If you're wary about using chicken powder then by all means use salt or light soy sauce, except the latter will change the colour of the wrappers from a bright yellow to a dull browny colour.

Next give the eggs a quick whisk.

Add a teaspoon of corn flour to the mix. This will stop the egg wrappers from breaking up when you're trying to fold them into shape. Whisk and make sure you break up the lumps of corn flour.

Next add a tablespoon of water. I don't know why. My instinct told me to.

In a hot pan, proceed to pour the mixture in as you would when you make pancakes. Essentially this part is just like making crepes, except the batter is much thinner and prone to breakage. In other words, be gentle when you flip!

When the wrappers are cooked, drain them well on paper towels, making sure you lay a piece of paper towel between each layer so they don't cook each other and then mold themselves into one another. I hate how eggs like to cuddle themselves.

Once you've finished the mixture, leave the wrappers aside to cool while you make the stuffing. I made about 6, only because I wanted the rolls to be quite large. Feel free to go miniature.

You'll need about 200~250 pork mince. And a food processor.

Look. If you don't have a food processor then you're just going to have to buy one. Or chop the stuff up manually, but you won't get the same elastickkkkkky texture to the stuffing - or as Asians would describe it - the Q factor.

Nah I'm just kidding. Manually chopping is fine.

You'll need about a cup of diced Green (or as the bag tells me, King) prawns. Whether it's Green or not doesn't really matter. Just don't use stuff that's too mushy.

A cup of bamboo shoots.

A cup of black fungus. (Yes I know I rehydrated about a tonne. Just fridge the leftovers)

And a small knob of ginger. It's in the picture somewhere. Add about a teaspoon of chicken powder, 3~4 tablespoons of light soy for steaming (Lee Kum Kee), or just plain light soy.

Best to add 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil as well.

Put the lid onto the food processor and give it a good whizz.

Once all the components come together, crack an egg into the mixture.

Proceed to whizz it some more until the egg is combined with everything else. You might need to give it a little scrape on the side once in a while.

Once it is done, grab the cooled egg wrappers and proceed to spoon a little of the stuffing onto the centre in a log shape. Don't overfill or the wrappers will burst.
Wrap it up as you would with a spring roll, then place the roll onto a plate ready for steaming.

Rinse and repeat until all egg wrappers are used up. The remaining stuffing can be rolled into balls and steamed as meatballs or used as Wonton stuffing.

Place the plate in a steamer (or a wok with a metal stand placed in the centre like mine) and steam for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of your rolls. You'll also need to drain the liquid that gathers in the plate after steaming.

Once the rolls are done, boil about 250mL of chicken stock (Campbell's Real Stock is fine) with 4 tablespoons of oyster sauce. Stir vigorously to combine. In a separate bowl combine a cup of water with a tablespoon of corn starch and stir until corn starch is suspended in water. Pour into the chicken broth and let the mixture thicken. Stir well so no lumps form.

Garnish plate with steamed bok choy/choy sum/anything you fancy. Pour broth over everything and serve.


Pork Egg Rolls in Broth
Makes 6 Egg Rolls

Buy:
Egg wrappers

• 6 Eggs, lightly whisked
  
• 1/2 tsp Chicken Powder
• 1 tblsp Water
• 1 tsp Corn Starch
• Oil for frying

Stuffing

• 200g Pork Mince
• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Bamboo Shoots
• 1 cup Black Fungus
• 1 cup Green Prawns, diced
• 1 knob of Ginger
• 3~4 tblsp Light Soy for Steaming/Plain Light Soy
• 1/2 tblsp Sesame Oil

Broth

• 250mL Chicken Stock
• 4 tblsp Oyster Sauce
• 1 cup Water
• 1 tblsp Corn Starch

Steamed Bok choy to garnish

Make:

1. Whisk eggs with chicken powder
2. Add corn starch and water and whisk until well combined
3. In a pan, slowly pour mixture to fry as you would with crepes
4. Remove from pan and drain well on paper towel. Repeat until all mixture is used up
5. Set wrappers aside and cool
6. In a food processor, add all stuffing ingredients except egg and whizz until combined.
7. Add egg and whizz until mixed thoroughly
   
8. Take one egg wrapper and place on flat surface. Spoon enough stuffing mixture onto the centre so that it creates a small log shape. Leave enough space on the edges for folding.
9. Fold in the sides of the wrappers, and place wrapped roll onto plate with the opening on the bottom.
10. Repeat until all wrappers are used up.
11. Place plate in steamer for 20 minutes and once cooked, remove plate from steamer and drain all liquid in plate. Place steamed bok choy on side of plate
    
12. In a wok or pan, cook stock with oyster sauce
13. In a separate bowl, combine water with corn starch until corn starch is evenly suspended
14. Pour corn starch mix into wok and bring to boil
15. Once the broth has thickened, pour over egg rolls and bok choy
16. Serve with rice
    

Review: Takumi, Haymarket

Who in the world wouldn't want $2.50/plate sushi train*? Definitely not me.

In a time where the world is still recovering from the damage caused by the GFC -- oh what the heck, I'd visit this place even if we weren't struck by the GFC. Mass loads of sushi is always a winner.

Takumi is a neat little place on the top level of Market City. If the low cost of each dish makes you somewhat nervous about the quality of the dish they serve - don't be. I think if I compared my overall satisfaction at the end of the meal from my experiences at Takumi and the $20 all-you-can-eat at Sushi Choo, Takumi wins hands down.

So, what do you feel like today?

Soft shell crab? Yes please.

Tempura prawn? Oh baby...

Chicken Kaarage?

The lonely Tamago? (I demolished the other one before I realised I needed to take a photo)

Personal favourite - Egg & Eel

Or perhaps the Eel & Cream Cheese?

Scallops?

Old-school Salmon Nigiri?

Transformer style Salmon & Tuna?

Tobiko lover? Why not try this?

Or perhaps with a little salmon to go with?

Or do you prefer your salmon lightly grilled?

Or maybe in a roll?

You can also order straight from the menu - as we did with the Takoyaki.

To top this off, the true gluttons out there will know this all too well already, but the sight of a mountain of towering empty plates will bring all too much satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

And it barely makes a dent in your wallet.

Takumi
Shop R3.02
Market City
9-13 Hay Street
Haymarket NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 9281 7200
Fax: (02) 9281 7288

*$2.50 for student prices - you need a student ID card. Otherwise it is $2.80/dish

Review: Thai Break, Macquarie Centre

A couple of weeks ago AL, EY and I all decided to go to Macquarie to do a bit of shopping. However, it wasn't just any old shopping trip...

It was a "Look EY, you're 21 now, let's get you dressed more like a twenty-something year old than a gangster wannabe...yes? Yes."

In other words, we dragged EY to get some decent clothing, even if it meant we had to restrain his kicking and screaming.

Alas! I'm too dramatic for this blog...

Long story short, before we could even get started, I demanded that we grab a bite to eat because I was starving. Lunch was never in the original plan, but heck. Food is food. And hence I didn't bring the DSLR - so please bear with the dodgy quality of my phone. Danghers to you Samsung!

Some things just don't change- including the part where we couldn't really decide on where to eat.Eventually we settled for Thai Break, which is situated on the upper level of Macquarie shopping centre. The design of the place is pretty simple and not the slightest bit pretentious in any manner. I would say the same for its food.Laab Gai

My choice for the day was Laab Gai. Its not a dish I would typically order, but I was really in the mood for something tasty but light (and not a salad. I've been eating waaaaaay too much salad from Stock Market at uni.)

I was pretty happy with the serving size - it was absolutely GINORMOUS. However, there was a little too much dressing running around the base of the plate, which meant that the rice was often too salty on the bottom, which meant I had to drink a lot of water to keep myself hydrated. It was delicious nevertheless - spicy, tangy and all the great things I love about Thai food.

Boat Noodles

AL decided to try the Boat Noodles. I kicked myself hard after tasting it for not having ordered this dish. It was definitely a winner on the table.

Pad See Ew

EY went for the Pad See Ew - a dish that rarely goes wrong. The serving size was a tad small, but EY was pretty happy with it considering he wasn't feeling like he could eat an entire cow anyway. All was well in the world.

So would I come back here? Yeah sure why not? Speed, ease and affordability right in the middle of a shopping centre - perfect competition for the food courts around.

Thai Break
Shop 454A
Macquarie Shopping Centre
Cnr Herring & Waterloo Road
North Ryde NSW 2113
Tel: (02) 9870 7733