 I am often drawn to Indian flavour profiles when I'm cooking with pulses because what other cuisine is so adept at turning humble legumes into such a rich variety of dishes?
We're calling these delicious morsels fritters. In India they go by many names like pakora,vada and bora depending on the region. These are somewhat like a falafel, although the outside is much crunchier and the inside lighter and fluffier. Whereas a falafel is made of Chickpea flour (aka Besan), these use split chickpeas - Chana Dahl that are simply soaked, blitzed and fried. Another selling point is there's no need to pre-cook the chana dahl. I like to serve these with a variety of accompaniments for dipping. For a quick meal, chutney and natural yoghurt are an excellent, no fuss choice, or you can go accoutrement crazy. Think palak (spinach curry), coconut chutney, tomato and tamarind chutney, mint and coriander chutney and lime pickle. I served mine with tomato and tamarind chutney, mint and coriander sauce and spinach curry. (pictured above)
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 Risotto is a classic crowd pleaser, but I think in recent years it's been wrongly tainted with the ‘difficult’ brush. We've seen it break aspiring supercooks on reality shows, and judges on these shows talk solemnly about the ‘risotto curse’, advising contestants to think carefully before attempting it.
But honestly, if you're not serving it at a fine dining restaurant, getting the consistency of a risotto exactly right just doesn't matter or affect the enjoyment of it at all. I'm of the firm opinion that a good-enough risotto is still utterly delicious. The babysitting that cooking a risotto requires is a different story - when it comes to mid-week dinners most of us are after more of a set-and-forget recipe. What if you could skip the stovetop stirring, pass most of the work to your oven and still produce a delicious risotto? Our ‘cheat's’ risotto is just that. It's been well and truly tested and tweaked. Hands-on time is just 15 minutes! It requires a small number of ingredients, yet the flavour is nuanced and delicious. All you need is a lemon, a few sprigs of rosemary and a little parmesan. Enjoy it as a stand-alone dish or use it as an accompaniment to the main event. We hope you love this creamy, luxurious feeling classic with a shortcut twist!  “I miss my mother’s rajma” one of our regular customers lamented a while back while scooping kidney beans into a bag. We nodded sagely for a second then dropped the pretence that we knew what he was talking about. We realised there was a very good chance that he was talking about a delicious dish made by his Northern Indian mum, and that if we played our cards right he might share the recipe with us.
“Rajma” he said dreamily. “It’s a curry made with kidney beans . But it’s so much more than that. It can’t be explained. You just have to taste it”. He didn’t know his mother’s exact recipe but he pointed us in the right direction. Suzanne was on the case, and by the end of the week had produced a pot of Rajma. Not wanting to be left out, I made it the following day and we had a rajma-off. Suzanne won! How to explain rajma… it’s rich, bright, creamy sauce is reminiscent of butter chicken, and the kidney beans give it a comforting, velvety texture. It’s delicious, and we couldn’t wait to share it with you.  Confession time: I don't think I've ever managed to leave a country town or weekend market without buying a jar of preserve. Chutney, mustard, jam, I am powerless to resist.
The undisputed Australian champion of all jarred preserves has to be lemon curd, aka lemon butter. And as it's peak lemon season right now, I need no further excuse to make a batch of curd myself. I'm sharing my trusty old reliable recipe that I've been using for lemon and passionfruit butter for decades. Its exact provenance is lost but I can tell you it's a combination of recipes from the CWA, my time in the Ritz Carlton pastry kitchen, and personal tweaks I've made over the years.  When our Tapioca Pearls arrived in store before Christmas, I set myself the challenge of making Boba, aka Bubble Tea from scratch. Why was it going to be a challenge? Because traditionally the bubble tea you buy already made uses the larger tapioca pearls, whereas we stock the tiny ones. I wasn't sure it would work. I'm pleased to report back that it does indeed work. The process was straightforward and fast. So I encourage you to give this deceptively simple drink a go. Prep Time: 5 min, Cook Time: 10 min, Chill time: 1 hour Servings: 2 Ingredients: ½ cup uncooked tapioca pearls 4 cups water (for cooking tapioca pearls) 4 teaspoons dried hibiscus flowers 1-2 tablespoons sugar of choice 1 cup hot water (for steeping tea) milk of choice ice Method: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Slowly add the tapioca pearls. Bring water back up to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so pearls don't clump together. Scoop a few pearls out with a slotted spoon to test for softness - they should be soft but with a little chew, a bit like pasta. Tip the cooked pearls into a colander in the sink and run plenty of cold tap water over them straight away so they don't cling together, and also so they stop cooking. Set aside. Meanwhile, pour 1 cup boiling water over dried hibiscus flowers and sugar; stir well then let steep for 10 minutes. Strain, stir again then allow liquid to completely cool in the fridge before making your drink. To assemble your Bubble Tea: Divide tapioca pearls between two tall glasses. Add ice and sweet hibiscus tea mixture evenly into both glasses. Add a splash of coconut milk or any other milk you fancy. Add a parfait spoon to help scoop up those plump tapioca pearls. Stir and enjoy! Pimp My Recipe Whilst I used hibiscus tea for this recipe, Bubble Tea is traditionally made with a base of black tea and fruit syrup. If you want to try the black tea version, use black tea in place of hibiscus leaves, and add fruit flavoured syrup or cordial instead of the sugar. Adapt the separate components of this recipe to your taste. The strength of the tea, the sweetness, and amount of milk and pearls. Milk: I tested this recipe with regular full cream milk, oat milk and coconut milk, and they all passed the taste test. However if you want to turn the authenticity up a notch, try using canned evaporated milk. It's what's traditionally used in a lot of commercial bubble tea shops. |
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