After going around the world we decided to cook for the family. Well we recruited some help to manage all 10 courses.
Here are five or six of them.
On this tray we’ve got spring rolls and empanadas.
Spring Rolls:
50g minced chicken
100g bean sprouts
20g carrot
20g glass noodles soaked and cut to 1 inch length
3 cloves garlic
5 garlic chives or scallions
1 tsp each fish sauce, soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
Spring roll wrappers
1 egg beaten for wash
Heat oil over medium heat and add garlic, fry until fragrant then add chicken and cook. Add mixed sauces then everything else until cooked.
Wrap filling then deep fry until crispy and gold brown
Ham and Cheese Empanadas
Sliced ham (whatever you like or is easy to get)
Mozzarella cheese cut into strips
Empanada wraps (in Edmonton go to Argyle Foods on 99 st and 62ish Ave, everywhere else look for your local latino grocer)
Take a wrap add ham and cheese then crimp closed and either deep fry immediately or freeze, if you freeze they make sure to bring back to room temperature before frying
Argentinian Empanadas
1 lb ground beef
4 hard boiled eggs
1 cup stuffed olives (optional because I don’t like olives)
handful raisins (also optional but because the recipe says that)
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
3 Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp chilli flakes
salt & pepper to taste
Sauté the onion in a bit of oil then add the garlic. Cook until just fragrant then add the beef and brown the meat. Add the seasonings and taste. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Fill the wrap and crimp closed. Either fry immediately or freeze.
Dad was kind enough to lend a hand with the frying while I ran around dealing with other things.
Use lots of oil so the oil comes back up to temperature quickly and cooks the empanada rather than having the oil soak into the dough.
After the starters I made a Pilipino dish called adobo chicken:
- 2 lbs. chicken, cut into serving pieces
- 3 pieces dried bay leaves
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 to 2 cups water
- ¼ cup cooking oil
- ½ tablespoon white sugar
- Salt and whole peppercorn
1. In a large container, combine the soy sauce and garlic then marinade the chicken for at least 1 to 3 hours
2. Place the cooking oil in a pan and apply heat
3. When the oil is hot enough, put-in the marinated chicken. Cook all the sides for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour-in the remaining marinade and add water. Bring to a boil
5. Add the dried bay leaves and whole peppercorn. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender
6. Add vinegar. Stir and cook for 10 minutes.
7 Put-in the sugar, and salt. Stir and turn the heat off.
With that I served rice and a fried flat bread called chapati:
2 Cups flour, 1 Cup warm water, salt and sugar to taste. Mix the ingredients together then knead in flour until elastic and stops sticking to everything. Cover the dough and rest for 30 minutes. Cut the dough into small balls and roll thin and circular. Fry in a pan with oil. Enjoy.
Then I made tagliatelle with bolognese sauce.
2 tablespoons Minced Onion
1 tablespoon Minced Carrot
1 tablespoon Minced Celery
80g Non smoked Pork belly. You can use Pancetta instead. (1/3cup)
350g Beef (3/4lb. Sirloin is the best, but cheaper cuts are ok, such as from the shoulder)
1/2l Meat stock (1Pt)
2 heaped tablespoons Tomato paste
40g EVOO (2tbsp) olive oil
40g Butter (2.5tbsp)
1/2 glass Dry white wine (Optional)
1 Chicken or Rabbit Liver (Optional)
Directions
Step 1. Finely chop pork belly.
Step 2. Finely chop onion, carrot and celery and stir fry them in a saucepan with 3 tablespoons of EVOO. If you like butter put it together with the oil, half and half.
Step 3. After 1 minute add the hand minced pork belly. Vegetables and fat have to charamelize, so stir fry but don’t burn them: it will take about 10 minutes. Now add your ground beef, stir and keep cooking for about 10 minutes.
Step 4. When the liquid released by the meat has evaporated add half a glass of dry white wine. Stir the sauce and when wine has evaporated add the tomato paste dissolved in a glass of stock. Wine is not necessary, if you don’t want it just add the tomato sauce as above. Stir and check the color of the sauce, we want a light brown, not a red one.
Step 5. Keep your sauce boiling over a slow heat semi-covered.
Step 6. When the sauce dries up add one glass of beef or chicken stock and keep simmering. When stock has evaporated add some more and keep simmering for 1 hour.
Step 7. The more your cook your sauce adding stock little by little the better it will be. Some people let simmer it up to 4 hours! But don’t worry, 2 hours in total will be enough for a good sauce.
Step 8. If you like chicken liver you can add some cubed about 30 minutes before your sauce is ready.
Pasta:
3 eggs and 300g flour
Make a pile of flour and then place a well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well and then slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs. Don’t mix in all the flour, reserve some to keep it from sticking during kneading. This depends on the humidity of the air. Knead for about 15 minutes. Wrap in plastic, have a glass of wine (wait 10-25 minutes) then roll the dough thin quickly so the dough doesn’t dry out. Cut pasta to desired shape.
The final course was paella. I wasn’t super happy with the recipe so I won’t list it here, feel free to search online for what looks good for you.
Here I am hard at work making the dough for dessert.
The dessert I made was Trdelník, a pastry we ate lots of in Prague and at other Christmas markets around Europe. They are delicious.
Here’s the dessert my brother made: Black Forest Cake. You’ll have to get the recipe from him, I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to bake this cake.
