Apple, Walnut and Celery Salad with Camembert Dressing

The opening of a grand dinner without meat......

Apple, Walnut and Celery Salad with Camembert Dressing
Serves 6 for starter or 2 for lunch

Ingredients
Dressing:
250g round, ripe camembert
2 tbsp crème fraîche

Salad:
110g Cox’s apple, sliced
2 Hearts of Romaine
2 celery sticks

Garlic croutons:
50g bread, cut into small cube
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cloves of garlic, crushed

Methods
1.Preheat an gas mark 4, 180oC oven.

2.Place the bread into a mix bowl, together with olive oil and garlic. Stir them around so that they get an even coating.

3.Arrange them onto a baking tray, bake them for 10 minutes or until they are crispy and golden. You may need to turn them around to get all sides crispy. Don’t go away from them, it is only 10 minutes, stay near the oven, otherwise you will forget.

4.Allow them to cool and leave them on one side until they are needed.

5.Then prepare the dressing. You can either peel the camembert skin carefully so you won’t waste too much, but I have found another method to do the trick. Put the whole cheese, with skin and everything (not the plastic wrap and the wooden case of course) into the microwave oven. Heat it at high heat for 2 minutes. The inside of the cheese will be melted, but still holding shape by the skin. Now, cut a circle at the top, then scrap the melted cheese into a sauce pan, and try to resist the smelly temptation.

6.Put the crème fraîche into the cheese, if you have dry cider at home, dash 1 tablespoon into it, so that the sauce would be less thick.

7.Now the salad, prepare them just before serving, tear the hearts of Romaine leaves into manageable pieces. Arrange them onto the serving plates, then the apple slice, and celery and then the walnut.

8.Scatter the croutons onto the salad and dress it with melted camembert. The dressing might start solidify at this point, re-warm the dressing under low heat until it is thin enough to serve.

Answer to email: Smoked salmon and Spag Bog

Recently I received an email from my first blog fan. He asked me how to make smoked salmon and he had some difficulty when making pasta sauce. I can’t say that I’m an expert in Italian dishes. However, Spaghetti Bolognese is one of my mum’s crowd pleaser for many years, and I have picked up some tips from time to time.

Smoked Salmon & Cured Salmon

Facts of Smoked Salmon and Cured Salmon

Smoked Salmon is fresh salmon that has undergone a smoking process, usually by one of two methods-hot-smoking or cold-smoking. Most of supermarkets sell both types of smoked salmon. However, the delicate flavour of cold-smoked salmon makes it becomes people’s favourite. Also, it is very easy to use in cooking, either directly put on soda bread with sour cream as canapé, or slightly cooked in pasta.

Cured Salmon is practically raw fish. The method has been used for centuries to prevent food from spoiling. The process usually involved good quantity of sugar or salt or both. Herbs or citrus peel can be put into to make a dry rub mix which is then applied onto surface of the fish. It takes a few days to a week to ‘cook’ the fish, depends on the size of the fish. The sugar and salt draws a large amount of liquid from the fish and replacing it with sugar/salt mixture, thus gives the fish ‘cooked’-liked finish.

Even though, they are different in making process, their tastes are similar and can be applied in cooking in same way. However, of course, cured salmon has no smokiness.

Gravlax
This Swedish speciality of raw salmon cured in sugar-salt –dill mixture is famous around the world. The fish is sliced paper-thin and served on dark bread with mustard-dill sauce as appetizer.

I adopted the original recipe and came up with a citrus-flavoured cured salmon. I love it, and all of my family and friends love it, why don’t you give it a try.

450g/1lb salmon fillet (preferably middle-cut), pin bones removed
25g/1oz coarse sea salt
25g/1oz caster sugar
1 tsp crushed white peppercorns
1 lemon, zest only

Get two salmon fillets of total weight 450g/1lb. Ideally, they are about the same size. Wash the fillets and towel dries them.
Then mix the salt, sugar, pepper and zest in a mixing bowl. Lay a large piece of cling film on your worktop, and then put a quarter of the salt mix in the centre of the cling film. Put one fillet on top of the salt, skin side down. Then rub and other 2 quarters of the mixture on the salmon, put another piece of salmon on top, sprinkle the rest of the salt on top.
Wrap the fish with the cling film tightly. Then place the parcel on a shallow dish to prevent leaking of the liquid. Place another plate on top of the parcel, and apply some weight. Keep the fish in fridge for at 48 hours but no more than 3 days. Some liquid may leak out from the parcel, but don’t worry, that’s normal.
Before serve, unwrap the parcel, wash off any residual mixture from the fish with cold water, and then serve it the way you like.

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Spaghetti Bolognese

A world famous pasta dish that everyone loves, Spaghetti Bolognese is originated in Bologna, Italy. This pasta dish is with a meat based sauce, sometimes taken to be tomato sauce. However, the original recipe has very small amount of tomato paste, perhaps a couple of tablespoons.

The traditional ingredients of Bolognese sauce (Ragù) were confined by the recipe issued in 1982 by the Bolognese delegation of Accademia Italiana della Cucina. It involves beef, pancetta, onions, carrots, celery, tomato paste, meat broth, white wine, and milk. However, there are numerous of interpretation worldwide, and nowadays the term ‘Bolognese’ usually applied to a meat-tomato sauce, which vaguely bear the resemblance of traditional Ragù.

Ma Luk’s Spaghetti Bolognese
Serves: 4

450g/1 lb mince beef
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
750ml pasta sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
150g Cheddar cheese, grated

350g dried pasta (Spaghetti, Penne, Rigatoni or Tagliatelle or any pasta you like)
30g butter, cut into knobs
1 tablesppon olive oil
2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoon ketchup

Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, fry garlic and onion to golden brown but do not burn, then fry the mince until just cooked.
Tip away some of the oil in the pan, then add the sauce, tomatoes and sugar. Stir through the mince and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes uncovered or until the sauce is reduced to two-third. Then add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Preheat a 220oF/ gas mark 4-5 oven. Meanwhile, boil a large pan of salted water. Put the pasta into boiling water. Stir to avoid sticking and cook for 10-15 minutes or until al-dente.
Strain the pasta through a colander, put the pasta back into the pan. Put butter, oil, sugar and ketchup onto the pasta and mix until all pasta are coated.
Pour the pasta into a casserole dish, add the Bolognese on top, sprinkle grated cheese all over the top, then bake it in oven until the cheese is melted and golden.

Ben’s Spag Bog
Serves: 4

450g/1 lb mince beef
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tinned chopped tomatoes
300ml passata
1/2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper

350g pasta
Parmesan cheese, finely grated to serve

Heat the pan with a few tablespoon of olive oil, then shape the beef into small meatballs, about less than an inch diameter and brown them all round. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
Use the same pan, fry the onion and garlic until golden but do not burn them. Pour in the tinned tomatoes, passata, tomato paste and oregano, mix well. Simmer the sauce to reduce to two-third, about 15-20 minutes. Then put the cooked beef balls into the sauce, simmer at low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Boil the pasta according to instruction on the package. Then strain them and put it back to the pan. Stir through a couple spoons of olive oil, then pour the sauce into the pasta, mix through and serve with grated parmesan and extra black pepper.

Tips: if the sauce was runny, but you would like to have good amount of sauce. Thicken the sauce with flour and water mixture (1 tablespoon of flour to 2.5 tablespoon of water). Do not pour the mixture all at once, pour them in portions and stir until it thickens to your like.


As I mentioned before, spaghetti Bolognese has different interpretation. You could put more vegetable, such as mushroom and celery. You also could use basil instead of oregano. I hope you all are happy making spag bog with your own style J

Starter : Beetroot Cured Salmon with Horseradish Sour Cream

Hi everyone, Christmas is getting close, where are you going to have your favourite Chirstmas Dinner? Posh Restaurant? Friend's House Party? for me, a wholesome home-made Chirstmas Dinner is unbeatable. The following dish that I have served on my birthday dinner as a starter also fit well in Christmas. The dark red beetroot taints the edge of salmon slice in red and leaves the middle orange pink. Horseradish gives it an extra dimension on the fish, you definietly can 'Taste the Difference'. With horseradish cream and Irish soda bread, this dish is the perfect starter for a lot more to come.

For the Salmon:

2 skin-on salmon fillets (about 1.3kg/3lb in total)

200g caster sugar

140g sea salt flakes

85g grated horseradish from a jar

3 medium raw beetroot (about 250g/9oz), coarsely grated (no need to peel)

1 bunch dill , chopped

For the Sour Cream:

200ml tub sour cream

juice 1 lemon

2 tbsp grated horseradish from the jar

handful dill fronds, roughly chopped

Soda Bread (I chose Paul Rankin’s) for serving

1. Lay the salmon fillets, skin side down, on a board and brush your hand along it. If you feel any little pin bones pinch them out with your fingers or tweezers. In a bowl, mix all of the other ingredients for the salmon together to make the cure.

2. Stretch two large sheets of cling film over a work surface and spoon over some of the cure. Lay one of the fillets, skin side down, on the cure, then pack over most of the cure, and sandwich with the remaining fillet, skin side up. Top with the last of the cure and wrap both fillets together tightly with lots of cling film. Place in a container with sides, like a large roasting tray, put a smaller tray on top and weigh it down with a couple of tins. Leave in the fridge for at least three days or up to a week. Don't be alarmed by the amount of liquid that leaks out, this is normal. Once a day, pour away the liquid, turn the salmon and re-apply the weights.

3. To serve, unwrap the salmon from the cling film and brush off the marinade. Slice the salmon into thin slivers. Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together with some salt and pepper, and pour them into small ramekins, one for each guest. Serve each guest with a few slices of salmon, few slices of soda bread and the dressing at the side. Once made the salmon will sit happily in the fridge for up to a week and can be used just like smoked salmon.

White Truffle

Last weekend, I was planning my birthday dinner at Lance’s (my bro). One of the starters will be butternut squash risotto with white truffle oil. I have had truffle oil in dishes in several occasions, I found it not as special as people describe, or may be the restaurant I went to was stingy about, so I have not had a good analysis on the taste of it.

For those who have not heard of truffle, I am here to give a little intro for these ugly and unappetizing but precious fungi. Truffle is a type of edible fungi that grows 3 to 12 inches underground, often near oak trees. They are not as visible as their conventional counterpart. Truffle farmers train pigs and dogs to sniff truffle out in forests. Because of its labour intensive harvesting method, thus their shelf life is only a few day in refrigerator after they have been exposed, these make truffles extremely expensive.

To make sure I put what I want to taste in my dish, there is only one way to find out. I bought a little bottle of this white truffle oil in Morrison. It costs me £3.50, it is not cheap but it is cheaper than I expected. The taste of oil actually tastes like one of the Chinese medicinal herb, Dong Quai – Chinese angelica. It has a very pungent aroma. I tried it on some scallops, it goes very well. Although, I do not know is this truffle oil good or not but we like it.

I did not take the oil back to Manchester with me, I thought I could get them in Waitrose, and so I did. However, it is from a different brand and the smell of it is different to the one at Lance. The smell is more gasoline, a lot more earthy. I cannot say I am very keen on the smell of it. Actually they both taste similar, but I prefer Lance’s to the one I bought. Nevermind, I have spent good money on this little bottle of oil, I just hope it will go well with my risotto.