Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Grace Young describes this dish as “restorative food”.

The recipe is included in her wonderful book The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. It’s been on my bookshelf for years and I love it so much that I’ve recently bought a Kindle copy (thanks Carol!), just so I can take it with me when I’m out and about…

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I’ve followed Grace’s instructions fairly closely – the only major changes being the use of eye fillet instead of flank steak, omitting the bicarb soda, and the substitution of Basmati rice for the more common Chinese long grain varieties. I also increased the sauce quantities by just a tiny bit, as my first attempt (above) was a touch too dry.

• 250g beef eye fillet
• 2 tablespoons peeled and finely shredded ginger
• 2 teaspoons Shao Hsing rice wine
• 2 teaspoons (light) soy sauce
• 1½ teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)
• ½ teaspoon sesame oil
• good pinch of ground white pepper
• 1½ tablespoons (6 teaspoons) oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons water (60ml) for sauce
• 200g Basmati rice (about 1 cup)
• 440ml water for cooking rice
• light olive oil
• 2 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped

1. Wash the Basmati rice in three changes of water. Place the rice into a large bowl, cover with water and allow to soak for 30 minutes. After soaking, drain the rice well and add it to a microwave proof container. Add 440ml water and cover with a lid. Microwave on high for 5 minutes, then on half power for 18 minutes. I have a 1000 watt microwave.

Note: use any rice you like and cook it in any way that you’re familiar with – in a rice cooker or on the stove should work equally as well.

2. Slice the beef finely, making sure to cut against the grain for maximum tenderness. Peel and finely julienne the ginger (I like to add quite a lot)…

 3. In a small bowl, combine the beef, ginger, rice wine, soy sauce, cornflour, sesame oil and pepper. Stir to combine. In a separate bowl, stir the oyster sauce with the 3 tablespoons of water.

4. A few minutes before the rice is cooked, stir two teaspoons of oil into the beef mixture. Heat up a frying pan and add a tablespoon of oil. Add the beef carefully, spreading it out into a single layer as much as possible. Allow to sit for a minute, then stir fry for an additional 30 seconds until the beef is brown, but still a bit rare. Stir in the oyster sauce and chopped spring onions…

5. Arrange over the hot rice. Replace the cover and heat in the microwave for a further minute or so, but be careful not to overcook or toughen the beef…

All three of my men loved this dish. Big Boy specifically asked for the recipe so that he could add it to his repertoire of easy to make dinners!

Inspired by our recent visit to Mister Gee, I thought I’d attempt my own burger buns.

They’re made with our sweet dough recipe, and my sons have both declared them to be perfect – soft enough to soak up all the lovely meat juices, but not so soft as to fall apart or squish to nothing on the first bite…

I made up a large batch of our sweet dough, turned some of it into loaves for my parents, and the rest into these buns. Then Pete and I left for the day to take my folks to medical appointments. When we finally arrived home at 7pm, Big Boy and Small Man had made the patties (minced beef and pork, no other ingredients) and prepared all the trimmings (sliced cheddar, fried onion, salad, homemade mayo, chipotle barbecue sauce).

We were all starving and it was dark, so I didn’t manage a photo of the finished burgers, but they were delicious. The boys  ate two each!

Because I was rushed for time, I made this dough in my new Kenwood. Instructions for making it by hand are here:

• 500g bread/bakers flour
• 10g dried/instant yeast
• 7g fine sea salt
• 40g caster (superfine) sugar
• 60g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large (59g) eggs
• 250g full cream milk, at blood temperature, or UHT milk, unrefrigerated
• 1 extra egg for eggwash
• sesame seeds

Note: UHT milk has a long shelf life and is purchased in cartons from the supermarket shelf.

1. In the mixer bowl, whisk together (by hand) the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the milk, eggs and cooled melted butter, then pour into the dry ingredients.

2. With the mixing paddle, run the machine on low and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated. Scrape the paddle clean, cover the bowl and allow to rest for 15 – 20 minutes.

3. Switching to the dough hook on the machine, give the dough a brief knead – just a couple of minutes will do. Scrape the dough hook clean, cover the dough and allow to rest until doubled in size – an hour or so in our mild climate.

4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and using your dough scraper, give it a couple of gentle folds onto itself. Divide the dough into nine pieces, approximately 100 – 110g each. Shape each piece into a ball, then place on a lined tray. Preheat oven to 200C with fan.

5. Beat the extra egg with a tablespoon of water to form an egg wash. Gently flatten each ball of dough into a thick circle. Brush the top of each bun with egg wash, then cover and allow to prove for a further 20 – 30 minutes, or until puffed up.

6. Uncover the dough, brush with a second coat of egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Gently flatten the dough again to adhere the seeds and to ensure the finished bun isn’t too ball-like – it will rise quite a lot in the oven.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes – the buns will brown up very quickly so keep an eye on them. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

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It was a great end result –  the meat patties (complete with melted cheese) were easily cooked on the sandwich press, the buns were given the thumbs up, and the homemade mayo and chipotle sauce added just the right amount of luxury. Best of all, Big Boy and Small Man prepared most of the meal and cleaned up afterwards, bless them.

I didn’t want to put this recipe up without an actual burger photo in it, so I made the buns again today (I always like to test a recipe twice before posting, if possible). This time I tucked six in the freezer and made three burgers for dinner, using grassfed Angus patties from Havericks. Accessorized with avocado, tomato and chipotle corn salsa, they were a tasty meal!

I’ve been happily spending my Amazon birthday money on Kindle e-books! It’s a wonderful way to indulge my love of cookbooks without the environmental costs associated with paper copies. It also lets me discover small treasures which never make it into a hard copy, like this little gem…

Costing just a few dollars and containing less than two dozen recipes, it was written by a Thai chef who runs cooking classes in her home town. The instructions are simple to follow and fairly basic, but having said that, Duen’s recipe produced the tastiest Thai Green Chicken Curry that I’ve ever made.

I went in to Thai Town (Campbell Street, Sydney) to pick up some pea eggplants – the recipe specifies the round Thai eggplants (about the size of a squash ball), but I prefer using the slightly bitter pea ones in my curries…

Instead of making my own curry paste, I used a Maesri one that I had in the pantry (the book provides instructions for making red and green curry pastes from scratch)…

The secret ingredient? A tiny bit of chicken stock cube. I rarely ever use them, but I always keep some MSG-free Maggi ones in the pantry. Here’s my take on Duen’s recipe – I greatly reduced the amount of fish sauce used as the one I have is very salty…

• 700g free range chicken thigh fillets, washed and sliced
• ½ tin Maesri green curry paste
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 400ml coconut milk
• handful basil leaves
• handful of Thai pea eggplants (or larger eggplants, cut into pieces)
• 2 large kaffir lime leaves
• 1 long red chilli (for garnish)
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar (or brown sugar)
• ¼ – ½ chicken stock cube

1. Heat the coconut oil up in a pan (I used my Emile Henry clay wok) and fry the curry paste until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add 250ml of the coconut milk and the kaffir lime leaves.

2. Add the chicken and stir until half cooked, then add the fish sauce, palm sugar and stock cube. Stir until combined.

3. Add the remaining coconut milk and bring to a boil, then add the eggplants and simmer until cooked but not mushy. Check the chicken is cooked through and adjust the seasoning with more fish sauce or palm sugar if required.

4. Stir the torn basil through the hot curry and garnish with slivers of red chill. Serve with steamed rice.

This was every bit as delicious as it looks in the photo! It was amazing what a difference the addition of the palm sugar, fish sauce and a little bit of a stock cube made.

Definitely a recipe we’ll be making again, and there’s a couple more in Duen’s book that have caught my eye as well. Great value for $3!