the concept

the concept

The idea came from some friends, Lucy Jason & George, who were back home briefly & raved about a chef in London's East End...http://fridaynightakeout.blogspot.com/
I thought it was such a good idea, the best thing to do would be to bring it to life here where I live in New Zealand.
So...I'm also a freelance chef, each week I cook a different dish, depending on what's in season, what's good now, or just how I feel. Lately I've been cooking a lot of my mother's dishes

Dish descriptions will be posted here online early in the week, recipes later over the weekend, with links to:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pabloskitchen/130053437081945 & http:/twitter.com/#!/pabloskitchen

As I play with the idea through the week, the dish maybe evolves a little, but that's half the fun. Meals will be priced at $20, incl delivery & orders can be made anytime up to roughly lunchtime Thursday, which is when I go shopping. Simply get in touch, email or txt, you can order as many as you like!
Afternoon Friday I'll deliver dinnerboxes warm/cooling/cold, locally in & around my base, which admittedly does change a bit - currently I'm north of Auckland, living by the beach in Mangawhai (just let me know where you are when you get in touch).

tel: 021 676 123
email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com

I've recently included an email subscription option at the bottom of this page &, while I have no idea how it works, the hope is that it automatically sends to subscribers email notifications each week about the dish...so, sign up!

disclaimer:
From time to time, when the wanderlust takes over, I hit the road & disappear in search of dishes, tastes & ingredients elsewhere. Then this blog takes on a different kind of persona; a travelling recipe book of notes, pics & stories, ideas to inspire & for me to return to, once I get back home.

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

friday22feb13: parmesan potato gnocci, truffle oil, catch of the day

This week the recipe comes from my amigo Diego, fellow chef. We'll be experimenting with the dish over the next few days in Mangawhai, in a great kitchen at my mother's farm. Basically, the way Diego just described it, sounds pretty damn good, a definite dinnerbox contender.

Potato gnocci with a simple truffle oil dressing, shaved parmesan, he's hoping to catch some snapper to have with it, me I've brought lamb, & we'll find some greens at the market. It may change a little by Friday, but thats the fun part.

til then...


Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when I go shopping, & tell me how many dinnerboxes you'd like.
Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email:
txt: 021 676 123
email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)
& I’ll confirm your order when received.

talk to you soon…

cheers - Pablo

Monday, 18 February 2013

recipe: beef & mushroom pie

There's something about a pie...could it be our national dish? This week's beef & mushroom pie, my version. I've decided I really do like the pastry lid option, having bought some good sized pie dishes a little while ago for the purpose. Puff pastry rolled & cut out for the lids, brushed with egg-wash, baked golden, couldn't be a more simple matter.

In many ways the pie this week is classical in method, a simple process but one which requires care & attention to detail to get the most out of each component to the dish. Classical method aside however, a touch of my own is the use of Javanese comet tail peppercorns & Balinese long peppers, ground in the mortar & pestle.
Parts to the dish:
1) the jus/sauce/gravy 2) the filling 3) the pastry
& then you put 'em all together = pie
Ingredients: the Jus:
beef stock 1l
onion/garlic/butter/
tomato paste/marsala/cornflour
mushrooms button flat shitake oyster, for me, but whatever is local is worth a look
loose quantites, a splash here & there a spoonful there, as long as the result is a rich & slightly thickened glossy smooth sauce
Method:
*start with a litre of hot beef stock, following this recipe (archives August 2011 'Kitchen Basics')
*separately in a small bowl or glass, mix a little stock with a heaped spoonful of cornflour til smooth; 
*in a saucepan, saute an onion & a few wegdes of garlic, season, then add a dollop of tomato paste;
*let the tomato cook out a little, then add a splash of marsala to deglaze the pan, forming a paste;
*add a little hot stock, & gradually more, stirring in & making sure there are no lumps!
*add the stock thickened with cornflour & stir in, then simmer gently to cook out the flour.
>in case of emergency, the sauce can be passed through a sieve to remove lumpy bits & if it gets too thick, just add a splash or two of water. Otherwise, the sauce will quite happily simmer away, reducing gradually, until needed)
*once the sauce is simmering nicely away, I add my chopped mushrooms: lots & lots & lots
Ingredients: the Filling:
1 each carrot/onion/celery stick/baby leek, chopped evenly & small
a bay leaf/some sprigs of thyme/peppercorns
beef fillet, cut into tornedos/steaks
Method:
*element on 50% heat, warm the pan, lid near by...sweat the chopped veg in butter, salt;
*cover & allow to soften, 5-10 minutes;
"meanwhile, on another element heat a fry pan til smoking hot;
*dice the beef fillet into small pieces, season & toss with oil;
*when the pan is hot add the died beef, in batches, not too much at a time;
combine diced beef with vegetables & correct seasoning to taste;
*pour hot sauce over the meat mixture 
>don't constantly move or shake the pan, just allow the meat to brown quickly on the outside, & toss
   
Ingredients: Puff Pastry:
butter/flour/water
Method
this will be the subject of a 'Kitchen Basics' post later this week...
having made that comment, there are some good packet options in the supermarket freezers, but nothing beats making your own in my opinion.

Assembling the pie involves:
* rolling out the pastry to an even thickness, not too thin, cutting rings out of the pastry, 
*applying eggwash to the underside which, layen over the dish to form the lid & pressed closed, 
*put into a hot oven, approximately 220° or something close
>when in the oven,the egg on the underside will act like an adhesive between pastry & crockery pie dish  - glue in other words, where as the egg brushed on the top of the pastry will go a lovely golden brown
>you may notice the oven temperature in my photos is lower than 220°; on but this is because my oven burns too hot. With any luck the pastry lid will be sealed & as the gravy heats up inside it will start to steam, quickly cooking he beef

Wearing the hat of chief QC officer & Taste Tester, I snuck into the garden to scoff at a discrete moment, only to be caught red handed - Watties Tomato Sauce? How did that get there!

Tuesday, 12 February 2013

fri15feb2013: peppered beef & mushroom pie


cook-a-cow, continued 
this week's cut: eye fillet/tenderloin

#'1: the eye fillet/tenderloin is cut from the loin, is the beef cut of the highest quality, with a price per kilo to match. Sitting under the ribs, next to the backbone, this muscle does very little work & is the most tender part of the animal as a result. Faster cooking methods such as grilling & frying suit the fillet. 

 

While these lovely long summer days keep coming, the slightest of chills has begun to sneak into the night air. I felt it for the first time the other night, in my mind the cry 'nooooooooooo' & then I  thought: it's time for a pie. 
In a dish, pie crust on top? pastry top & pastry bottom? Not sure yet. What I can say is that there will be beef, it will be beef eye fillet, there will be mushrooms, perhaps other vegetables too, there will be gravy (how could there not be!) & then of course there'll be pastry. Golden, flakey, delicious pastry. Puff.
Looking after the player's meals at the recent ASB & Heineken Tennis Opens here in Auckland, I had plenty of opportunity to practice the cookery of this cut, both as whole fillets & cut into steaks. Using off cuts & left overs I came up with a classically simple little mix that started with a slow cooked mire-poix of vegetables, adding to this mushrooms & a beef jus. I separately flashed a dice of seasoned fillet, adding this to the wet mix. It was really tasty. A pastry lid over the top & that's what I call a pie worthy of fridaynightdinnerbox

A paragraph all to itself? Why not. Along with the peppered beef & mushroom pie, mention must be made of the veg & salad which, as always, is part of dinner. Potatoes, most probably mashed, & a salad of greens & sprouts & seeds & things.

Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when I go shopping, & tell me how many dinnerboxes you'd like.

Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email:
txt: 021 676 123
email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)
& I’ll confirm your order when received.
talk to you soon…
 'Sausage John' English butcher in Gourdon, S/W France, cutting a single t-bone steak for a customer (me)

Monday, 11 February 2013

recipe: jambalaya, prawntails&pepperoni

The beauty of this dish is that it is so easy & fast to cook, the only real work involved is making sure all the components to the dish are prepared & stored waiting in the fridge. The three steps for this dish:
> in the rice cooker, brown rice cooked > prep the veg, the meat, the sauce > bring it all together

Ingredients: the rice:
1 cup brown rice
2 1/2 cups liquid - stock &/or H2O
Method:
*if you have a rice cooker you are in good company. If not, follow the instructions on the packet & buy a rice cooker!
Ingredients: Vegetables:
olive oil & butter
capsicums x4
garlic/onions x4
a few sprigs of thyme/2 bay leaves
Method:
*set the oven to 220 C
*rub oil over the capsicums & set on the oven rack
*slice onions/garlic, cook in olive oil & butter, & the herbs, covered in the oven 30 minutes or until beginning to caramelise, this completes their cooking
*when the peppers are blackening, remove from the oven & put in a bowl covered with gladwrap/
*the skin of the peppers will loosen & can easily be peeled from the flesh, after which slice into strips
 
Ingredients: Proscuito/Prawn/Pepperoni
*the prawn tails re rinsed under cold water to thaw, then kept in the fridge til ready
*sausage is sliced on the slant into thin pieces
*proscuito is rolled up & sliced into thin strips which then unravel
Ingredients: Coriander Cream:
1Tsp coriander seeds mortar & pestle, with 1tsp white pepper corns
300ml cream
Method:
*infuse together in a saucepan over a low heat til reduced by 1/2

Bringing it all together:
*in a hot pan, a little olive oil, a few strands of saffron to infuse
*meanwhile, in a bowl on the side place some caramelised onion & roast capsicum strips
*flash the pepperoni slices, tossing them occasionally, then remove & add to the bowl
*same pan, toss the prawns with a little bruised garlic, till they turn pink, salt, taste test, add to the bowl
* same pan, add the cooked rice, toss before adding a little coriander cream, add to the bowl
*sprinkle some chopped herbs over the mixture in the bowl, tossing all once or twice
*ready to serve 

Monday, 4 February 2013

fri08feb2013: jambalaya, prawntails&pepperoni

...& peppers, yellow & red, roasted slowly, peeled & tossed as strips alongside caramelised onion & grilled pepperoni sausage. As a base, my Jambalaya will be made using brown rice this time.

As a fridaynightdinnerbox favourite, this dish reappears from time to time. I've used different rices, bulghur wheat & couscous as a base, brown rice with its nutty flavour & extra body is my first choice, & what I plan to use for this week's jambalaya. Together with pepperoni will be khulen, a Croation spicy dried sausage, similar to Italian chorizo or Hungarian csabai. &, of course, prawn tails. Saffron cream sauce binds the dish, a coriander mint & lemon gremolata sprinkle on top.

Your part is simple: get in touch by thursday afternoon, cos that's when I go shopping, & tell me how many dinnerboxes you'd like.
Drop-offs from 4pm onwards, to the office/site/home just let me know what suits.

To order, contact me by txt or email:
txt: 021 676 123
email: pabloskitchen@yahoo.com (subject heading: “fridaynightdinnerbox”)
& I’ll confirm your order when received.

talk to you soon…

cheers - Pablo

recipe: chicken parmigiana, with saltimbocca potatoes & red cabbage summer coleslaw


A classic Italian dish, Chicken Parmigiana is another old favourite of mine. This version is similar to that on chef Kurt Sampson's menu at the Windsor Castle, a gastro pub in Melbourne a few years back. An essential item appearing on every Melbourne menu, competition is fierce for where to get the best & reputations are garnered by those known for cooking a quality Chicken Parmigiana. Prepping for a regular weekend at the Windsor over the summer months, knowing the garden bar will be cranking, part of my Friday mis-en-plus included the butchering batoning & crumbing of 120 breasts, sometimes more. Either way, I'd often find myself running out late Sunday arvo.

It is important to be aware that not all Chicken Parmigianas are created equal. I am often asked to hold cooking classes & Chicken Parmigiana is a popular dish that students often choose to learn. As for myself, I can never resist to give it a try when I get the chance & have ordered it off menus in establishments ranging from a truck stop diner in outback WA; a tourist restaurant in Pisa, Italy; a municipal albergue in Estella, Nth Spain, along the Camino de Santiago;  I've even dined on Chicken Parmigiana during an overnight ferry crossing from Ostend to Dover, many years ago. Easily adapted to different types of occasions, this is just as suitable a dish to serve in the garden bar of a Melbourne pub as in a fancy Italian restaurant. I laughed when I watched the movie Mr Deeds, with Adam Sandler, in which he plays a character who unexpectedly inherits 80 billion dollars &, in a scene where he is trying his best to impress his date, played by Winona Ryder, having made reservations at New York's finest establishment, what is the dish he orders them both for dinner? Chicken Parmigiana! So, it follows, that there are many versions of Chicken Parmigiana.

It's a great dish for dinner at home & preparing it is a simple matter of following just a few easy steps. There are three main points of difference in preparing this version of Chicken Parmigiana that I'd like to draw attention to. Firstly, preparing the breast itself; secondly, details in making the sauce; thirdly, the replacement of wheat based ingredients with gluten free alternatives. 

Ingredients: Tomato Sauce:
olive oil/butter
garlic/onion/tomatoes
tomato puree  
thyme/s'n'p
Method: Tomato Sauce
*an onion, whole garlic, whole tomatoes & a squeeze of tomato puree in a covered pan with olive oil
*pan roast in the oven til just starting to caramelize
*peel & scoop seeds out, blitz together (stick blender works for me here) 

Ingredients: Saltimbocca Potatoes:
gormet potatoes, jersey benneies, pearlas, agrias all work well
whole fresh sage leaves/strips of streaky bacon or proscuito, one per potatio
olive oil, s'n'p
toothpicks
     
Method: Saltimbocca Potatoes
*3 or 4 per person, same size, clean & wash potatoes
peel a strip of skin around the middle of each potato, drop into pot of boiling water & cook til the hardness is just giving way to being cooked - about 2/3 cooked
*remove from water, wrap each with a sage leaf, then again with bacon or proscuito, securing with a tooth pick
*in a hot pan with olive oil, toss the potatoes gently to brown, season, then into the oven for 5-10 minutes
*serve immediately

IngredientsChicken Parmigiana:
chicken breast -1 whole, skinned
chicpea flour/milk&egg/ gluten free bread crumbs -a cup of each
glad wrap
enough tomato sauce/parmesan cheese to cover the breast generously
 Method:Chicken Parmigiana:
* remove breast from chicken frame
*place the breast between two sheets of glad wrap & with a flat object, the bottom of a fry pan works if you dont have a meat tenderising hammer, baton flat a little, so its all even
^in seasoned flour, then egg, then crumbs coat the flattened chicken breast
*pan fry on one side, turn, season
*cover  fillet with tomato sauce, then with cheese
*place in hot oven, 5-10 mins, til the cheese starts to brown

Ingredients: Coleslaw:
red cabbage/bok choy/spinach/spring onions, cut to a fine chiffonade
carrot/celery, cut to a fine julienne
pumpkin&sesame seeds/almond&walnut pieces, toasted
alfalfa shoots
to dress, a light mayonnaise or, in this case, a honey vinaigrette  
 
Method: Coleslaw:
*in a bowl, combine all the ingredients in turn, tossing together & dressing only at the last moment

Vegetarians! substituting a nice slice of aubergine for the chicken works here, following the exact same proceedure, to give you Milanzano Parmigiano, equally as famous, not to mention equally as delicious. I even used some of the left over cooked gormet potatoes, cut them into discs, tomato'n'cheesed them & grilled myself some little Baby Potato Parimgianas, little canape style bite-sized mouthfuls for when I was cleaning the kitchen down afterwards. Delicioso!
-ciao!