Category: Mains

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Mains Recipes

Spinach & Liver Dhal

Here’s a spicy and comforting lentil dhal that features two good sources of iron – liver and spinach.

Iron is essential to maintaining good health, energy and stamina, with iron deficiency often cited as a cause of fatigue. It is particularly important in pregnancy, when the body’s demand for it increases.

Served up with warmed flatbreads for dipping, this will satisfy your tastebuds, as well as helping your body get what it needs to maintain drive and focus.

Servings

6 good adult portions.

Timings

About 30 – 40 mins to prepare and cook.

You Will Need

  • a swig of vegetable oil
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 4 – 5 mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 celery stick, chopped
  • 500g pork liver or lamb’s liver
  • 1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
  • 2 – 3 tomato can’s worth of cold water
  • a squidge of tomato puree
  • a swig of Worcester Sauce
  • 200g red lentils
  • 400g spinach
  • some warmed flatbreads, to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a wok and add the spices. When sizzling, add in the onion, mushrooms and celery.
  2. Chop the liver into small pieces, removing and discarding any tough bits. Add the chopped liver to the wok and stir.
  3. When the liver is browned, add in the chopped tomatoes, water, puree and Worcester Sauce. Then add the lentils and stir.
  4. Wash the spinach, then gradually add it to the wok in large handfuls. At first, it will look as if there is too much, but it will soon wilt down as you immerse it in the liquid. Continue until all of it is in the dish.
  5. Let the wok simmer away for a further 15 – 20 mins. The lentils will soften and thicken while the liquid is reducing, resulting a in a rich warming sauce. Stop when it reaches the consistency you like.
  6. Grill the flatbreads on either side for a few minutes, then serve them with the dhal, scooped into a bowl (see my main photo above).

Customise It!

Feel free to add in other vegetables you like and/or have to hand. Chopped carrots and peppers will go down a treat. Most veg will go, really.

So if your iron levels, energy and drive are a little low, a bowl of this dhal may help restore them to more of a high. You may be thinking this all sounds like an elaborate ploy for me to feature Lo/Hi, one of my favourite tracks by Ohio’s The Black Keys, and add it to the ADK Playlist. Mmm er, yes that’s about right!

Categories
Mains

Roast Beef with Red Wine Sauce

Happy Easter weekend everyone! It’s sunny and warm here in the UK but, I see, raining cats and dogs in Augusta, Georgia. How very inconsiderate of the weather, interfering with my planned post-dinner relaxation watching the US Masters. Oh well, while the golfing umbrellas are up, I will capitalise on the time to update you on my Easter weekend cooking.

I bought a joint of beef brisket from my local butcher and have slow cooked it with seasonal veg in a pot roast that seems to have gone down well with the troops. So here is the recipe.

Servings

There should be enough here for 6 adult servings, alongside your choice of roast veg.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, then leave it to slow cook for 6 hours or so.

You Will Need

  • 1kg rolled beef brisket
  • a swig of veg oil
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 1 parsnip, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 leek, chopped
  • 200ml beef stock
  • 200ml red wine
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbsp red currant or cranberry sauce
  • 1 tsp cornflour dissolved in 2 tsp water

Method

  1. Warm the oil in a heavy-based wok or saucepan. Put in the beef brisket joint and sear until it is brown on all sides. Transfer to a warm plate.
  2. Put all the chopped veg into the warm oil and cook till browned.
  3. Add in the stock, wine, bay leaf and redcurrant/cranberry sauce. Bring to the boil and stir to mix.
  4. Combine the beef joint, veg and sauce in the vessel that you are going to slow cook in. I used an electric slow cooker on the low setting, but I have also cooked this dish in a Le Creuset casserole dish on the stove top, on simmer setting. You could also put it in a casserole dish and transfer to the oven at 140C. Whatever method you choose, the key factor is to let it stew for around 6 hours on a low heat. This will tenderise the meat, infuse the veg with a beefy taste and produce a sweetened sauce, or gravy.
  5. 6 hours later, remove the joint and set on a carving board, covered with foil to keep warm. Transfer the sauce to the hob and heat to reduce. Add in the cornflour and water mix to produce the thickness you desire. If you wish, add in further amounts of cornflour and water as necessary.
  6. Slice the meat and serve with a generous dollop of the red wine sauce. You can see from my photo that I served this with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, boiled carrots and brussels sprouts.

Customise It!

I would stick to the choice of joint, and proportions of beef stock and wine. The veg, however, you can vary up to include what is in season and what you have to hand. Some field mushrooms and some red or green peppers would go down well. Celery would be a brilliant addition.

As it is the Easter holidays, I have a special, longer track for the ADK Playlist. The 50th Anniversary of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells has recently been a topic of celebration here in the UK, with a re-recorded version and concert tour.

At first I was slightly wary about a re-recording of a classic, that was as close to perfection as it is possible to get. However, the new version is actually pretty good, being very faithful to the original, and definitely worth a listen. It has been recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the added strings, woodwind and percussion sections add significantly (there is no brass as far as I can tell).

I was curious to see who would take the place of Vivian Stanshall as MC, calling in the various instruments. My guess was Stephen Fry, but as it transpires it is Brian Blessed, in typically rumbustious and over the top fashion.

All in all, a lot of fun.

Make the most of this relaxing music – next week I am back in London to see one of my favourite ever bands, Inspiral Carpets, live at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. I am really looking forward to this, folks, so expect higher decibel levels to be resumed soon.

Happy Easter!

Categories
Mains

Spicy Parsnip Soup

Time for another guest post on A Different Kitchen! Over to my wife, Lesley to show us how to make this tasty, hearty and warming soup.

I belong to a community allotment and we plan to have lovely fresh things to eat. Recently we have had a glut of winter parsnips. Everyone should eat more parsnips!  

I took home 6 of them all large and gnarly, grown organically and fattened up over our winter. With vegetables that have imperfections like this, soup is a great option as it doesn’t matter what bits you might have to cut out.

I love the scent of the crushed spices that are used in this recipe. I used a pestle and mortar but you can crush them on a cutting board with a bottle or rolling pin.

You Will Need

  • 6 parsnips, peeled and roughly chunked
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • a knob of butter
  • 1 litre of stock (after roasting a chicken we always boil up the carcass with some water for half an hour, then put the stock in tubs in the freezer until needed).  
  • A spice mix, here’s what I used, but any spices you like will do:
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • a few cardamon pods

Method

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the crushed spices.
  2. Add the parsnip  and onion, and heat until all the chunks are warm and coated – this will take about 10 mins. 
  3. Pour in the stock, and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Blitz to a smooth consistency, then serve.

Customise It!

This soup is great served with crusty bread, as shown in the main photo above. However, you could also make croutons by cutting bread into cubes and baking them on a tray in the oven. Keep your eye on them as they brown very quickly. Chuck the crispy croutons on to the top of your bowl of soup.

You could also swirl in a few table spoonfuls of double cream for an ultra-posh version.

The contributor of a guest post gets to choose the next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist. Lesley has chosen Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, who we have just seen on his farewell tour in London. More on this in my weekend post!

Categories
Mains Recipes

Guinness and Honey-Glazed Roast Pork

With all my Irish Potato Bread now eaten, I’m moving on to the next round of Irish-influenced good food and great music, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day Weekend.

This dish is a great way to incorporate A Drop of the Black Stuff in a dark, sweet glaze and sauce to enjoy with roast pork. As you can see from my main photo, I served this with creamy potato mash over a bed of shredded savoy cabbage. The garnish of scallions (spring onions) adds another taste, and contributes to the shamrock green colour palette.

It both looks and tastes great. What’s more, once you’ve opened the bottle of Guinness for the glaze, the rest can be poured into a glass as a well-earned appetiser for the hard working cook. So what’s not to like?

Servings

My carving of the pork loin produced 11 slices, so at 2 slices per person this will comfortably feed 4 -5.

Timings

15 mins to make the glaze. The pork takes an initial 20 mins in the oven at 180C, then a further 50 mins to slow cook at a lower setting of 150C.

You Will Need

  • 1kg good quality pork loin, skinless and boneless (I bought mine from a local independent butcher)
  • 200ml Guinness
  • 50ml runny honey
  • 120g light brown sugar
  • seasalt and black pepper

Method

  1. Combine the Guinness, honey and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then turn down to a simmer and allow to reduce by about half. Remove the saucepan to a cool place. Don’t be too concerned if it still looks too liquidy for a glaze – as it starts to cool it will thicken.
  2. Turn on the oven at 180C.
  3. Lay the pork loin on a chopping board, fat side up. With a sharp knife, score lines in the layer of fat at 1cm intervals. Grind over some seasalt and black pepper, then rub it in to the fat layer with your fingers.
  4. Place the pork on a roasting dish and put in the oven when it has reached temperature. Leave for 20mins.
  5. Remove the pork from the oven and turn the temperature down to 150C. Brush the pork all over with most of the Guinness and honey glaze, and put it back in the oven for a further 50 mins.
  6. Take the dish from the oven at 10 – 15 min intervals and baste with the liquid gathering in the bottom of the roasting dish. These will be a mixture of the Guinness and honey glaze and the juices from the pork as it cooks.
  7. Remove the cooked pork after 50 mins and let it rest on a chopping board for 5 mins, then carve into slices. See my photos below.
  8. Tip the juices from the roasting dish into the saucepan along with the remaining Guinness and honey glaze. Stir to combine as you warm it through, then pour into a jug.
  9. Serve slices of the pork with your choice of veg, and drizzle over the Guinness and honey sauce (see my main photo at the top of this post). My veg is boiled potatoes mashed with butter, steamed shredded savoy cabbage, and a garnish of chopped scallions.

Customise It!

You have scope to vary the veg accompaniments, though I would keep to a potatoes and greens theme for a St Patrick’s celebration. Add the chopped scallions directly into the mash, to make champ. You could also replace the cabbage with kale or cavolo nero.

No prizes for guessing the suggested choice of drink to enjoy with your meal!

My St. Patrick’s Playlist has been prominent in the ADK kitchen this weekend, and here is another track. This one is something of a timeless classic from Belfast’s own Van the Man: Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile).

Categories
Mains Recipes

Super Sunday Pasta Bake

Sunday teatime in my household presents something of a challenge: I like to have a home-cooked dinner for the family, but also enjoy watching the live football on Sky Sports’ Super Sunday. Especially so this week just gone, when the featured match is a big one, between Liverpool and Man United.

So I have developed a solution: Super Sunday Pasta Bake. All of the chopping and prep can be done in 15 minutes, at half-time. Then, when the final whistle is blown, it is just a case of throwing the ingredients together and into the oven. Twenty five minutes later, we have a Sunday dinner, and I haven’t missed any of the live action.

Granted, if you are a Man U fan, you may have wanted to slip out to the kitchen early on Sunday during the second half, to escape witnessing that 7 – 0 mauling by Liverpool.

Anyway, if you’re ready to pay attention, I’ll begin the tactics talk….

Servings

This will serve 4 people.

Timings

As indicated, 15 mins at half-time to prep, then 10 mins to combine at full time. The dish then goes in the oven for 15 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 1 cauliflower
  • 200g pasta penne
  • olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 4 rashers streaky bacon
  • 1 onion
  • 5 – 6 mushrooms
  • 1 green pepper
  • 60g butter
  • 75g plain flour
  • 500ml semi-skimmed milk
  • 100g mature cheddar cheese

Method

Half-Time

  1. Break the head of cauliflower into even-sized florets, and place in a bowl of water.
  2. Weigh out the penne and add to the bowl. Set aside.
  3. Chop the bacon, onion, pepper and mushrooms and place on a covered plate. Top and tail the garlic clove so it’s ready for crushing.

Full-Time

  1. Boil a kettle. Drain the cauli and penne, and place in a sauce pan covered in the boiling water. Bring to the boil again, then simmer for 10 mins.
  2. Switch on the oven at 180C. Lightly grease a baking dish with a swig of the oil.
  3. Put the rest of the oil in a wok or frying pan, and warm it on the hob. Add the crushed garlic clove, and when the oil sizzles, tip in the bacon and the veg.
  4. Melt the butter in the microwave, then stir in the flour to make a paste. Add in the milk, and return to the microwave on high for 2 mins. Keep checking it every 30 seconds or so to make sure it isn’t boiling over. It will soon begin to thicken, and should be lump-free.
  5. Stir the sauce with a hand whisk and give it further 30 second bursts as necessary in the microwave to thicken. Remove from the microwave, grate in all but a handful of the cheddar, and stir to combine.
  6. By this stage, the cauli and penne should have had 10 mins to simmer, and the bacon and veg softened in the pan. As if by magic, the oven should be coming up to temperature.
  7. Drain the cauli and penne and spread out in the baking dish. Spread the bacon and veg on top, then cover in the cheese sauce. Sprinkle the reserved handful of grated cheese over the top, and put into the oven for 15 mins.
  8. If you wish, go back for 15 mins and see what pundits, Jamie and Gary are making of the match just gone!
  9. It should then look like the photo below. Spoon into bowls, which should look like the picture at the top of this post.

Customise it!

Within the basic structure of the dish, there is lots of scope to play around with the ingredients. Vary up the veg by replacing the cauli with broccoli, and leek in place of the onion. Add more colour with a different pepper, or go vegetarian by adding chopped nuts in place of the bacon. Blue cheese will go well in the sauce.

More new music now for the ADK Playlist, courtesy of Leftfield. The massively influential dance band are back with a new album, This Is What We Do, which is definitely worth a listen. Here is one of my favourite tracks from it, Full Way Round.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Cassoulet

This week, positive scenes in the news have inspired me to come up with a dish that brings together some British and European ingredients. It looks like we may now be getting back to being on (at least) speaking terms with our lovely neighbours across the Channel in Brussels.

My take on Cassoulet, the classic French stew, combines British seasonal winter veg, German Bratwurst, and French white wine. It’s a fine taste of cross-border goodwill and co-operation – Rishi and Ursula would love it!

There are many different cassoulet recipes, and most contain garlic, poultry (usually chicken or duck), sausages, a ham or bacon, a pulse (e.g. cannellini or haricot beans), stock and white wine. Outside of these, there is scope to use your imagination, what is in season or (erm, a consideration in some parts of Britain at the moment) what is actually in stock in the shops.

Servings

There should be enough here for 6 generous servings.

Timings

About 20 -25 mins to prepare. It then simmers away on its own for 2 – 3 hours.

You Will Need

  • 4 chicken breasts
  • 6 Bratwurst (or any other good pork sausages)
  • 12 rashers streaky bacon
  • 1 onion
  • 2 celery sticks
  • 1 carrot
  • 100g button mushrooms
  • 400g can of chopped tomatoes
  • 400g can of cannellini beans
  • 300ml chicken stock
  • 200ml white wine
  • torn basil leaves
  • 1 bayleaf
  • 2 tbsp cornflour
  • 2 tbsp cold water

Method

  1. Prepare a large casserole dish or slow cooker to cook the cassoulet in.
  2. Cut each chicken breast in half, then shallow fry each in a frying pan or wok until browned. Transfer to the cassoulet dish.
  3. Chop the bacon and fry with the sausages till browned. Add to the cassoulet dish.
  4. Chop the onion, celery, carrot and mushrooms and add to the frying pan. Let the veg soften for a few minutes, then transfer to the cassoulet dish.
  5. In the warm frying pan, tip in the tomatoes, stock, wine and beans. Give them a stir and, when warm and combined (you guessed it) transfer to the cassoulet dish.
  6. Tear in the basil leaves and add a few twists of salt and black pepper. Dunk the bayleaf in the middle.
  7. Let it stew for 2 – 3 hours. I used an electric slow cooker, which sits simmering away in the corner of the kitchen. If you use a casserole dish, put it in the oven at 180C.
  8. When the cassoulet is cooked, combine the cornflour and water in a ramekin until fully dissolved. Pour into the cassoulet and stir to combine. You should see the sauce start to thicken straight away. It is then ready to serve.

Customise It!

As suggested above, provided you have the core elements that every cassoulet should have, you can feel free to play around. Slices of garlic sausage from the deli can take the place of the bacon, for example, and you can vary up the veg if you wish.

I served this with boiled waxy potatoes and steamed shredded cabbage – both of which are good at soaking up the sauce. Boiled rice is another good call.

Turning to the next track for the ADK Playlist, all this talk about European relations brings me to Kraftwerk. I saw them play a few years ago, in the Royal Albert Hall in London. There aren’t many bands who can go off stage half way through for a nice cup of tea, leaving four robots to play their instruments in their absence. The machines performed We Are the Robots, without any dip in quality.

This is one of my favourite tracks of theirs, taking us on an atmospheric journey from Paris, through Vienna to Berlin, on the Trans-Europe Express.

Categories
Breakfast Mains Recipes

Bacon and Blueberry Pancake Stacks

A feast for Pancake Day that’s flippin’ marvellous!

I have made this a few times, having used the recipe in my Sunday Brunch Cookbook, from the makers of the Channel 4 show featuring Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy (so a big ADK shout out to Simon and Tim!).

Fancy sweet blueberry pancakes interlaced with rashers of bacon and melted butter, topped with a soft poached egg and drizzle of maple syrup, with a few twists of black pepper? Read on…

Servings

There are 3 pancakes in a stack, and this will make 6 pancakes i.e. 2 servings

Timings

15 mins to prepare the pancake batter (which can be done in advance), and then 15 mins to cook.

You Will Need

  • 1 egg for the batter
  • 25g butter
  • 125ml semi-skimmed milk
  • 60g cottage cheese
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 25g caster sugar
  • 120g fresh blueberries
  • oil
  • 2 eggs for poaching
  • 6 rashers of streaky bacon
  • maple syrup to drizzle
  • black pepper
  • some slivers of butter

Method

  1. Begin by making the pancake batter: combine the egg, milk, and cottage cheese in a bowl. Melt the butter ( I give it 12 – 15 seconds in a small bowl in the microwave) and add it in.
  2. In a separate bowl combine the flour, bicarb and sugar, the sieve it into the egg mixture. Give it a good stir, and feel free to use a mixer or hand blender to remove any lumps, if you wish.
  3. Add in most (about 100g) of the blueberries. Make sure you do this after using your mixer or hand blender, as you want them to stay whole! Give it another good stir and set aside.
  4. Warm an oven to around 100C and put in a plate that you can use to keep the pancakes warm as you cook them.
  5. Rub the base of a frying pan with a piece of kitchen paper dipped in oil, so that it has a light coating all over. Put it on the hob to heat up.
  6. Ladle in around 2 heaped tbsp of the batter. It will spread out to form a pancake about 1cm deep and 10cm in diameter, though don’t expect it to be a perfect circle (and this doesn’t matter). See the first of my photos below.
  7. After a few minutes, when it’s looking like it’s firming up, insert a spatula underneath and carefully flip it over to cook on the other side. See the second of my photos below.
  8. When both sides are cooked to a golden brown, remove and set on the warming plate in the oven.
  9. Repeat steps 6 – 8 to make 6 pancakes in total.
  10. With all 6 pancakes made, lay out the rashers of bacon in the pan and cook till crisp and golden.
  11. While the bacon is frying, soft poach the eggs. I find about 4 mins, once the water has reached boiling point, is the right length of time for large size eggs.
  12. Remove the bacon to the warming plate when done.
  13. Take the poached eggs off the boil when done.
  14. On two plates, you can then assemble the stacks. Begin with one pancake, then lay a rasher of bacon on top. Add a sliver of butter, which will soon melt. Repeat with another two layers, placing the rasher of bacon at 90 degrees to the one below. This will help the top stay flat(tish), which assists when adding the egg topping.
  15. Carefully place a poached egg on top. Drizzle with maple syrup and give it a few twists of black pepper from a mill. Scatter the remaining blueberries around the plates. Hopefully it will resemble my main photo at the top of the post.
  16. Serve!

Customise it!

I wouldn’t change the core ingredients of sweetened blueberry pancakes, bacon and soft poached egg. However, you could drizzle honey rather than maple if you wish, and also sprinkle some chilli flakes.

Next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist is from The Snuts, a young indie band who hail from West Lothian in Scotland. I like their sound and think the vocalist, Jack Cochrane, has a great voice. These boys can go far! This is Hallelujah Moment.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Sweet Roasted Veg in Qatari Spices

This week I’ve had fun using the Qatari Spices mix I brought back from the Souq Waqif in Doha, which I visited on my travels there in November. For this recipe, however, you can use any good mix of curry powder.

By way of background, I visited Doha in November and enjoyed the football and party atmosphere of the World Cup. It was quite some experience, with people from 32 nations all over the globe rubbing shoulders together in one city, in friendship and harmony.

In a previous blogpost, I explained the bewildering range of spices I came across on sale at Doha’s old traditional market, the Souq Waqif. The mix I chose is a blend of 9 different spices, including red chilli, cumin, cardamom, ginger, turmeric and coriander, all ground into a beautiful yellow/orange powder. See my photo below, taken at the Souq.

In this dish, I decided to make a paste and combine it with seasonal vegetables that become sweeter when roasted, namely butternut squash, parsnip and green pepper.

Normally I would like to retain control over the individual spices I am using. However, when you have a good quality ready made blend put together by an expert that knows their spice combinations, it provides a basis for a reliably good meal, and is also a time saver.

Servings

This will make 4 servings.

Timings

25 – 30 mins to roast the veg, and then 10 mins to combine in the sauce. The rest you can do while the veg are in the oven.

You Will Need

  • a large roasting tray’s worth of chopped and deseeded butternut squash, chopped parsnip and chopped green pepper, spread out on one shallow layer and coated in 1tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp oil for the wok
  • 2 – 3 tsp of Qatari Spices mix, or other curry powder
  • 1 onion
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • a 5cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 400ml can of coconut milk
  • any other veg you have to hand for using up – I threw in a half-can of sweet corn, chopped scallions and some button mushrooms
  • boiled basmati rice for 4 people – for me this means around 200g

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180C and put in the roasting tray with the veg for around 25 – 30 mins.
  2. Put the oil in a wok. When hot, add in the onion, garlic and ginger.
  3. After a minute, add in the spice mix, with a few drops of the tomatoes and the coconut milk. Stir it around in the wok to make a lovely spicy paste.
  4. If you are using button mushrooms like me, add them at this stage and let them sizzle for a minute or two.
  5. Pour in the rest of the tomatoes and coconut milk and stir. Turn up the heat so that it thickens and reduces.
  6. While the sauce is maturing, put the rice in a saucepan with boiling water and simmer for 10 mins or so, until the grains are just soft enough to bite through.
  7. When the veg is roasted, tip it all in to the wok, and stir so that it gets coated in the thick sauce.
  8. Drain the rice, and divide between 4 plates. Serve a few spoonfuls of the spicy veg curry alongside. See my main photo at the top of this post.

Customise it

The core ingredients are the sweet roast veg, and the spicy tomato/coconut curry sauce. As I’ve indicated, you can add in any other veg you have to hand and wish to use up – it all helps make your curry unique. You could also swap the rice for a pillau, home-made or ready-made, or some Naan or flatbread. Flat breads were especially popular in Qatar.

For the next track on our ADK Spotify Playlist, I’ve chosen another of the great new bands that are coming through just now. They’ve been deservedly lauded recently at the Grammys and the Brits. Here’s the Isle of Wight’s own Wet Leg, with Chaise Longue.

Categories
Blog Mains

Little Vietnam

Victoria Street, in Melbourne’s inner city east, is known locally as Little Vietnam. It has earned this name through the number of Vietnamese restaurants and food stores that stretch out along both sides – a reflection of the sizable Vietnamese community that has settled in the city over recent generations.

I haven’t eaten Vietnamese before, so took the opportunity to try it out. A little research identified Van Mai as a good place to visit, and I’m pleased to say I would recommend it.

As a starter, we shared a plate of Rice Paper Rolls. I had seen these in some Vietnamese street food stalls in the city, and fancied trying them. Visually, they resemble sausages (see photo below), the contents wrapped in edible, transparent rice paper. Unlike sausages, however, they are eaten cold. The fillings included shredded carrot, beansprouts and crispy chicken, with fresh coriander. They were served with a dipping sauce that had a satay flavour.

For mains we chose three dishes. My main photo at the top of the post shows Crispy Chicken with Steamed Rice, served with vegetables and a chilli and ginger dipping sauce. We also tried the Salt and Pepper Tofu, deep fried and presented on a bed of crispy vermicelli (see below).

Our third dish was Steamed Fine Rice Vermicelli with BBQ Pork Balls. This was served with fried onions and shallots, fresh mint and crushed peanuts (see below).

This dish was eaten by handrolling the food in large crispy lettuce leaves, and dipping the parcel in a bowl of fish sauce.

I liked the food very much, particularly the pairing of hot and spicy with fresh, uncooked ingredients like lettuce, hand-torn mint and coriander. I also had fun eating with my fingers, though my hands were very sticky by the end of the meal.

Another joy of visiting Victoria Street is the sight of the Skipping Girl – a much-loved Melbourne icon dating back to the 1930s. It was the city’s first neon sign, advertising the Skipping Girl Vinegar brand. Walk down the street after your meal to see her as dusk is falling – she will be illuminated and, magically, skipping.

For the next track on the ADK Spotify Playlist we take inspiration from the Skipping Girl. This is Malcolm McLaren with Double Dutch.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Parmesan Kohlrabi Steaks

Kohlrabi is a great vegetable to cook with. It has a texture that’s been described as a cross between a turnip and a water chestnut, which sounds about right.

Quite often you will see it in recipes that treat it like the poor relation – consigned to the margins of a meal, as a side dish, or have it grated into a salad along with other ingredients.

I felt it deserved its place in the spotlight, so this dish sees it firmly centre stage (or should that be centre plate?) as the star attraction. The crisp, juicy and crunchy texture it retains when cooked makes it suitable as a main, especially for anyone on a vegetarian, vegan or plant-based diet. I hope you will find it lives up to its billing!

It is actually quite simple to make. Cut a large disc-shaped slice of the kohlrabi that is about 1 – 2cm in thickness from the widest point (the equator, if you know what I mean). Trim off the peel, then cut it into about 6 pieces. Go for irregular shapes – you want each steak to be individual and the whole dish not to look uniform. Also, work in a number of angles and corners – these will crisp and caramelise as they roast.

Briefly place the steaks in a shallow pan with a little oil. Fry each steak on both sides for about 2 – 3 mins, then transfer to a roasting dish and place in the oven, heated to 180C. Let them roast for 30 mins, flipping them over half-way through.

Remove the dish from the oven and grate 40g of parmesan cheese (or vegan alternative if desired) over the steaks. Place back in the oven for a further 10 mins and let the cheese melt. The steaks will be browning up nicely as the photo below shows (I couldn’t resist a sneak peek in the oven to see how they were doing).

When complete, remove and serve with your choice of accompaniment. In my main photo you can see that I served this with savoury rice and steamed carrots. I served 3 steaks in one serving, making this a meal for 2.

If you like, you can make more servings, or have it again on another occasion, as you will only have used a fraction of that beautiful kohlrabi.

This is an exciting weekend for me, as I am setting off on my travels, spending the next couple of months in Australia, with some time in the Middle-East en route. I’ll be blogging here and tweeting (@differentkitch) along the way, so do please follow me on my journey. I welcome any comments and suggestions on places to visit and eat, food and drink I should try. This lovely track about global travel – Ramblin’ Man from Lemon Jelly – seems particularly appropriate today!