Jun 22, 2020
Mushroom Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Burnt Butter Sauce
Ingredients
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt flakes
Flour for dusting
250 g Swiss brown and button mushrooms, chopped in quarters
10 sage leaves
2 tbsp toasted pinenuts (optional)
½ lemon
50 g butter
Grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes with a fork, and then bake them for at least 1 hour on a bed of rock salt in the oven until they are tender and the skin starts to look wrinkly.
While the potato is still warm, peel the skin away from the flesh and set aside to cool slightly.
If you have a potato ricer, put the sweet potatoes through this. Otherwise you can use a fine sieve and push the potato through with a ladle or wooden spoon.
Place the flour on a board, or your kitchen bench. Make a well in the centre and add the riced / sieved sweet potatoes to the well. Season with salt and pepper.
Using your hands, work the sweet potato into the flour until it’s fully combined. You don’t want the dough to be sticky so keep adding flour gradually until you get a nice dry dough. This could take quite a bit of extra flour.
Once fully combined, roll the dough into a ball and cut it into 4 even pieces. Roll each piece into a long sausage, each about a finger in thickness.
Cut the rolls of dough into 2cm little pillows of gnocchi, and gently toss each piece into some flour on your work bench to ensure that it’s dry. At this point you could also use a gnocchi board or fork to press grooves into each piece of gnocchi to make it more professional looking but this is optional and tastes just as good without!
To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the salt. Blanch the sweet potato gnocchi in salted boiling water until they all float. Then drain, reserving a little of the cooking water.
In a large frying pan, over a high heat, add a splash of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter, add the quartered mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until golden. Spoon out the mushrooms into a bowl.
Using the same frying pan, add the cooked gnocchi and sear until crispy. Add the remaining butter, pine nuts, sage leaves and mushrooms you just set aside. Cook until the butter starts to burn. Then add lemon juice and Parmesan and serve.
TIPS
• Putting the potatoes through a sieve or potato ricer is a vital step to making gnocchi, as this breaks down the starch
• If you make gnocchi often, a potato ricer is a fairly inexpensive kitchen tool that is handy to have
Jun 16, 2020
Mushroom Chicken Ballotine & White Bean Salad
Ingredients
3 large chicken thigh fillets, skin on deboned
1 free range chorizo sausage
4 cup mushrooms
8 thin jamon or pancetta slices
12 Swiss Brown mushrooms
1 can lima beans (or chickpeas) drained and rinsed
1 red chilli, seeds removed, finely diced
1 Spanish onion, finely diced
1 bunch chives, finely diced
2 tbsp olives, roughly chopped
3 tbsp kewpie mayo
2 tbsp butter and drizzle of olive oil for basting
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to boil. To make the Ballotine filling, cut the mushrooms in half and add to a food processor with the chorizo sausage. Blend until it comes together as a paste.
Get your chicken thigh fillets and ensure they are uniform in thickness. If the thighs are particularly uneven, use a meat cleaver or rolling pin to flatten the thicker parts slightly, but don’t over do it.
Place a large sheet of foil on your bench, and put a sheet of baking paper on top of the foil. Place your jamon or pancetta slices down on the baking paper, each slice slightly overlapping the other. Place chicken thigh fillets (skin side down), on top of the jamon or pancetta in a row.
Next, spread the mushroom and chorizo mix across the length of your chicken, slightly in from the edge.
Using both the foil and baking paper, start to roll your chicken over itself, until it forms a tight cylinder with the foil and baking paper completely wrapping the outside of the Ballotine. Pinch both ends of the foil and twist them tight like the end of a lolly wrapper so that the Ballotine is completely sealed.
Place the rolled chicken parcel into the medium-large sized pot filled with boiling water and poach for around 20 minutes, or until it is just cooked through.
After 20 minutes, carefully remove the parcel from the boiling water and unwrap the foil and paper parcel.
Add butter and oil to a frying pan, and once hot add the cooked Ballotine to crisp up the outside jamon or pancetta layer. At the same time, quarter your Swiss Brown mushrooms and add them to the same pan to cook alongside the Ballotine in the butter and olive oil.
Baste the Ballotine with the mushroom butter juices for 2-3 minutes, and once golden and crispy, remove from the pan and leave to rest while you make the salad.
To make the salad: Place the beans, chilli, onion, chives and chopped olives in a bowl. Add the cooked mushrooms, but save the mushroom juice. Add a generous squeeze of kewpie mayo and mix until everything is well combined.
To assemble the dish, spoon the bean salad onto a plate. Cut the chicken Ballotine into thick 3-4cm slices, and add to the plate. Drizzle over the mushroom butter jus and garnish with extra chopped chives.
Nov 18, 2019
Crunchy Soft Mushroom Tacos
Ingredients
Baja Sauce
1 jalapeño, roughly chopped
10 pickled green peppercorns
½ bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1 lime, juiced
3 tbsp sour cream
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt, to taste
Corn salsa
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tin canned corn
2 tomatoes, cores removed, diced same size corn kernels
Leaves from ½ bunch coriander
½ red onion, diced size of kernels
1 lime, juiced
1 jalapeño, sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mexican Mushrooms
4 flat mushrooms, cut in thick slices
3 tbsp Mexican seasoning
1 tsp dried chilli optional
Splash extra virgin olive oil
Crunchy Soft Tacos
6 taco shells
6 soft tortillas, softened on an open flame (or in the microwave)
2 ripe avocados
Splash lime juice
Dash extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp sour cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Baja Sauce
Combine all ingredients in a mortar and pestle (or a small food processor) until all ingredients are smooth. Set aside.
Corn Salsa
Heat up 1tbsp olive oil in a medium sized pan over a high heat. Sauté corn for 2 minutes until golden, add to a bowl with the rest of ingredients, then mix together. Set aside
Mexican Mushrooms
Then, marinate the mushrooms with all ingredients, panfry on a medium heat for 2 minutes on each side, to avoid burning the marinade. Set aside.
Crunchy Soft Tacos
Finally, cut both avocados in half and remove each pip, setting aside. Using a fork inside each half, mash the avocado together with lime juice, sour cream and olive oil to form a rough guacamole.
To preserve the bright green and avoid oxidation, you can return the pips to the centre of the avocados and stick the halves together to close till you are ready to use.
Spread each soft tortilla with a spoonful of guacamole, then wrap around the hard taco shell.
Gently press the soft tortilla to the sides of the hard taco shells, using the guacamole as a glue. Repeat with remaining taco shells and soft tortillas
To serve, spoon a little of the salsa into the base of the hard taco, top with Mexican mushrooms and drizzle with baja sauce. Eat immediately.
Oct 28, 2019
Kentucky baked mushroom KBM burgers
Ingredients
4 Portobello mushrooms
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup plain flour
½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp white pepper
1 ½ tsp Italian Seasoning or oregano
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley
25 g butter melted
Directions
Place the mushrooms in a bowl and pour the buttermilk in to coat. Let it sit for a couple of minutes.
Preheat your oven to 200c (fan forced).
In a medium sized bowl using a whisk, mix together the flour, Panko breadcrumbs, baking powder and herbs and spices. Set aside.
Place the baking dish in the oven so it gets hot (around 10 minutes). While the dish is heating up, remove the mushrooms from the buttermilk, shaking off any excess, and dust in the seasoned flour mixture, coating completely, covering well.
Remove the baking dish from the oven, then add the melted butter so it coats the base of the dish.
Arrange the mushrooms on top, without touching the sides.
Bake for 10 minutes, uncovered. Remove from the oven then flip the mushrooms over and bake for another 10 minutes.
Serve on a soft bread roll of your choice (rye, brioche, soft white, sour dough or multigrain), with cheese, lettuce, tomato slices and kewpie mayo, or any of your favourite burger toppings or sauces.
Oct 9, 2019
Fajita chicken & mushroom pasta
Ingredients
375 g farfalle pasta
3 tbsp olive oil
300 g cup mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 chicken breast fillets, trimmed, thinly sliced across the grain
1 brown onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fajita seasoning
1 red capsicum, cut into thin strips
400 g jar tomato pasta sauce
¾ cup chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley, optional
Sour cream and corn chips, to serve
Directions
Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water following packet instructions.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, cook, stirring occasionally 5 minutes or until just start to colour. Remove to a plate. Add 2 teaspoons oil and half the chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove to a plate. Repeat with oil and remaining chicken.
Add remaining oil to the hot pan with onion. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes until soft. Add seasoning. Cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Add the capsicum, pasta sauce and stock. Return mushrooms and chicken. Bring to simmer, simmer gently for 2 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pan, add the mushroom mixture, stir to combine, adding the reserved cooking liquid to adjust the consistency to your liking. Stir through parsley, season. Spoon into bowls, top with sour cream and crumble over corn chips. Serve.
Recent Comments