Thai Roast Duck Salad

 

So, I googled "game meat" and according to Wikipedia, "Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport". I never knew that duck was considered game until someone told me that it is not commonly served or eaten in the United States for that very reason. Well, it makes sense now that I recall seeing duck hunting on TV (specifically the old Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck - rings a bell?). Maybe because I've grown up eating a lot of Chinese roast duck (and Peking duck during special occasions), and so I can't say that it tastes gamey at all. Or maybe duck just tastes best when it's roasted until the fat has rendered and the skin's gone all thin and crispy. The only thing I don't like about duck is that it's really boney and fatty. If you buy half a roast duck, you'd end up with half of it being bones and fat. The meat and skin however is very tasty. If you've watched the "roast duck seller" chop up a roast duck before, you might notice how he tips out the juices from the cavity and reserves them, probably to make the duck sauce or gravy. It's so good over steamed white rice.

In my previous post, I wrote about my wine pairing lunch with a Thai-inspired theme, and one of the dishes was a Thai Roast Duck Salad. I bought the roast duck from the Chinese barbecue shop, which made the preparation of this salad really easy. Alternatively, you could buy some duck breast and pan-fry it until the fat's rendered and the skin's all thin and crispy. If after all my raving about duck and you're still not game (pardon the pun) enough for it, you can substitute the duck with beef steak, pan-seared to medium rare and thinly sliced. Or why not try it with stir-fried beef or chicken if you're in the mood for something warm? The proof is in the dressing!

 

Thai-style Roast Duck Salad

Serves 6

 

Ingredients

 

One whole Chinese roasted duck (store-bought), meat picked and sliced

200g (7oz) mixed salad leaves (spinach, endive/frisee, rocket)

1 handful fresh coriander (cut off the bottom part of the stem)

1 bunch fresh mint, leaves picked and roughly torn

1 cucumber, halved lengthways, seeded and diagonally sliced

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

Crispy fried shallots for garnish

 

Dressing:

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp chopped scallions

3-4 bird's eye chillies, thinly sliced

7-8 tbsp freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice

3 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp grated palm sugar

3-4 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce

 

Method

 

1. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic into a paste. Then add the rest of the dressing ingredients and mix well using the pestle. Taste and adjust until you get the right balance of sweet, sour and salty. Set aside.
2. Place the rest of the salad ingredients in a large bowl and top with the sliced duck meat. Just before serving, drizzle with the prepared dressing and toss well until evenly mixed. Garnish with crispy fried shallots.

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Wining and Thai-ning

 Wine matching with Thai cuisine

 

 

Almost everyone we've ever invited over for lunch would have tried Mr G's Hainanese chicken rice, at least once. Mr G being Mr TFWL, but I'll save on the keystrokes. In fact, we serve it so often that people have come to expect it from Mr and Mrs G's House of Chicken Rice. Okay, so there are a couple of reasons why it has become a staple on our "menu". Firstly, everyone eats chicken (unless you're vegetarian of course, which means you'd best be eating rice with cucumbers) and I think the neutral flavours agree with the general palate. I can't think of anyone who doesn't like chicken rice. Secondly, it's pretty much a one dish meal served with rice, and perhaps accompanied by a side dish of stir-fried vegetables, which makes preparation a breeze. Coincidentally (ahem...), it also suits my personal agenda, as it means that Mr G does all the cooking while I sit back and relax. No, of course not. There are still appetizers and dessert to think about. But this post is not about chicken rice.

It's not easy to please everyone when it comes to food, and I usually try to avoid the common food aversions, like lamb for example. Lamb is like the national meat of Australia. I love lamb. In Malaysian cuisine, you'll find that mutton is often used instead of lamb. Mutton is also known as goat, or the meat that comes from older sheep. It has a stronger taste and smell compared to lamb that people may find offensive, and the meat tends to be very tough. Because of this, I prefer my mutton to be slow-cooked in rich spices to cloak the strong gamey taste, and if done well, it can taste quite exotic and delicious. Mutton curry and mutton soup (Malaysian "Sup Kambing") are some of my favourites. On the other hand, lamb is quite different and does not have the overpowering taste of mutton. I digress.

I suggested to Mr G that he got some of his friends together for a wine pairing lunch with a Thai-inspired menu. As I had never met them before, there were no expectations about their food preferences. Therefore, I had no qualms about putting lamb on the menu, although I prepared a contingency dish of Thai barbecue chicken ("Gai Yang") just in case. We seldom have wine with Asian dishes as the highlight of the meal is always the food, not the wine. It can be tricky when choosing the right wine to match especially when the dishes are spicy, which tend to kill the flavours of the wine you're drinking. Wines that are high in alcohol, tannin and oak are best avoided when eating spicy food. A glass (or two) of ice-cold water is probably the first thing I would reach out for.

 

Anyway, I spent some time planning out the menu and developing the recipes. With some help from the staff at the liquor store, I think we made some good selections with the wine matching, and all within budget. Here's a snapshot of what we served:

The Menu

Oysters with lemongrass, ginger, chilli and lime
Torresella Prosecco - Extra Dry

Thai-style Roast Duck Salad
Emperor's Prize Pinot Noir 2010

Spicy fish mousse
Tolley Musica Pinot Gris 2012

Massaman lamb shanks
2009 d'Arenberg The Custodian Grenache


Oysters with lemongrass, ginger, chilli and lime
Torresella Prosecco - Extra Dry

For starters, we served fresh Sydney rock oysters with a Thai-style dressing made with lime juice, palm sugar, chilli, fish sauce, ginger, lemongrass and scallions. I held back on the chilli as I didn't want it to overpower the Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine made from Prosecco grapes. As oysters are naturally salty, a high acid wine (also Champagne, Riesling or Semillon) helps to temper the saltiness as well as stimulate the salivary glands. That probably explains why sparkling wine is usually served at the start of the meal to whet the appetite.
 

Spicy fish mousse
Tolley Musica Pinot Gris 2012

The fish mousse (or as we call it in Malaysia, "Otak-otak") was actually quite spicy. It's made with fish, red curry paste, coconut cream and eggs, and then steamed over banana leaves. I was afraid that the chilli might clash with the Pinot Gris, which was a light and crisp white wine with a musky pear aroma. Surprisingly, both paired really well, as the Pinot Gris has no oak nor tannins and delivered a nice smooth finish that complemented the silky texture of the fish mousse.

Thai-style Roast Duck Salad
Emperor's Prize Pinot Noir 2010

Next, we opened the bottle of Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, described as being full-flavoured with ripe plum, cherry and spice characters. Some of us begged to differ and found the wine to be relatively light and medium-bodied, with a light berry colour that was reminiscent of Ribena (as in the blackcurrant drink). Nevertheless, we gave it a unanimous thumbs-up that it was a perfect match with the Thai-style duck salad. Remember, if you're having duck, you can't go wrong with a Pinot Noir!

Massaman lamb shanks
2009 d'Arenberg The Custodian Grenache

As we got to our fourth and final bottle of wine, some of us started feeling a little too happy and the volume level at the dining table started to elevate by fractions of a decibel with each sip of wine. But really, four bottles of wine (which we didn't finish) were quite reasonable considering there were seven of us, enjoying a slow and long lunch with good company, good food (ahem...) and a wonderful selection of wines.

We had the lamb shanks with our final bottle, a Grenache, which was more full-bodied and earthy with a long finish. It was an excellent pairing with the Massaman lamb, which was mildly flavoured and with hints of sweetness from the palm sugar. I think the fact that the lamb was quite subtle in taste (after hours of slow-cooking which probably infused it with all the spices) made it "palatable" even to those who didn't usually eat lamb. For the recipe, please click here.

Honeydew and sago pearls in coconut milk

We ended our meal on a sweet note with honeydew sago, made with honeydew, sago, coconut milk and sugar syrup. After a busy morning in the kitchen, I figured this would be an easy one to prepare. The sweet and ripe cubes of honeydew immersed in cold sweet coconut milk, interspersed with little sago pearls, made for a delightful bowl of dessert which was light and refreshing. At the thought of coconut, Malibu rum sprang to mind and I brought out the bottle should anyone decide to continue with the booze fest we were indulging in that afternoon. It's no surprise that a splash of Malibu worked really well with this dessert, much like an essence of coconut with an alcohol hit. Adults only, please. And in case you were wondering, no kids were intoxicated in the making of this lunch.

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Strawberry Vanilla Cream Cake

The thing about kids' birthday cakes is that, it's not what's on the inside that counts, but what's on the outside. Always judge a cake by its icing. Well, the icing is always the first thing to go whenever I present cupcakes to my kids anyway, whilst the cake is left behind, still stuck to its cupcake liner. Remember that episode from Seinfeld where Elaine had that idea about selling muffin tops? Now, wouldn't that be a fabulous idea for cupcakes too? *wink*

When it came to deciding what cake to make for Z's birthday, it was simply a choice between vanilla or chocolate, and Z chose vanilla. Vanilla and strawberries. I wished he could have chosen something a little bit fancy so that I had an excuse to bake something different. I did a search on strawberry vanilla cakes and found this recipe which had pretty rave reviews. I usually don't believe in butterless cakes, although this one which uses vegetable oil with a hint of lemon zest tastes pretty amazing. The fact that it uses oil instead of butter probably explains why the cake is so cottony soft, light and melts in your mouth. Each layer is laced with strawberry, lemon and vanilla syrup, and combine that with the vanilla cream and fresh strawberries and there's your slice of heaven. Cheesy as that might sound, but it's truly one of the yummiest strawberry cream sponge cakes I've had in a long time. Go for it!

Note: The recipe below makes 4 layers of cake. I actually used only 3 layers (as you can see from the photos) so that the cake wouldn't be so tall. You could just do 2 large layers if you like.  Am I making sense? :)

 

Strawberry Vanilla Cream Cake
Adapted from GroupRecipes

Ingredients:

For the berries:
2 punnets strawberries, rinsed, hulled and horizontally sliced into 1cm thickness
2 tablespoons granulated/caster sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the cake:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups granulated/caster sugar

For the filling:
1/2 cup thick vanilla custard (made using 2 tbsp instant custard powder mixed with 1/2 cup water)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp gelatin powder dissolved in 1 1/2 tbsp water

Extra strawberries for decorating

Method

 

For the berries:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium nonreactive mixing bowl and toss to thoroughly coat strawberries. Let macerate at room temperature at least 20 minutes before using.
2. Strain macerated berries and reserve syrup separately.

For the cake:

1. Heat oven to 180°C (350°F) and arrange rack in the middle. Grease and flour two (8-inch) cake pans. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a mixing bowl; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine vegetable oil, water, lemon zest, vanilla extract, egg yolks, and 1 1/4 cups of the sugar. Whisk on medium-high speed, until mixture is airy and light in color, about 5 to 7 minutes. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl; add dry ingredients and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute more. Don't worry if the batter turns out really thick. That's how it is!
3. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites to medium peaks. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute more. Using a rubber spatula, fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the cake batter until evenly incorporated; gently fold in remaining egg whites until just combined.
4. Divide batter between prepared cake pans. Bake until surface of cakes springs back when pressed and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Remove cakes from the oven, and turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the filling and the frosting.

For the filling:

1. Combine cream, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and use a whisk to whip until soft peaks. Add prepared custard and whip again until just combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the frosting:

1. Combine vanilla extract, sugar, and heavy cream in a bowl and whip at medium speed until soft peaks form. Whisk in the gelatin solution until firm peaks form.
2. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least one hour.

To assemble:

1. Using a long serrated knife, trim the tops of the cakes as necessary so they are level. Slice each cake horizontally in half to make a 4-layer cake.  Place cake rounds on a clean, dry surface and, using a pastry brush, brush 1/4 of the reserved strawberry syrup on the cut side of the first cake round; repeat on the cut side of the second cake round and the repeat with the rest.
2. Evenly spread some of the cream filling over the cut side of the bottom cake layer. Arrange strawberries over the cream and cover berries with the remaining filling, being sure to fill in any empty space.
3. Place second cake layer over cream and strawberries, pressing gently to secure it. Repeat the layering with the remaining cream and strawberries so that you have 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of strawberries and cream filling in between.
4. Using an offset spatula or a long, thin spatula, spread the frosting in a thin layer over the top and sides of the cake. Return remaining frosting and cake to the refrigerator until frosting on cake is set, about 15 minutes.
5. Spread the remaining frosting all over the top and sides of the cake. Let sit in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes before serving. Decorate the top with extra strawberries if desired.

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Baked Kale Chips

There's been all this hype over kale chips, and how they taste like potato chips, except that they are loaded with vitamins and minerals. I finally bought some kale from the supermarket last Sunday and was pretty excited to make these. It's really easy. Roughly tear up the kale into pieces, and then wash and dry them thoroughly. Lay them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch salt. Be careful not to put too much oil or salt, because the kale will shrink to a quarter of its size and you don't want to end up with oily salty kale chips (now how did I know that?). Bake them in the oven at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes, turning once halfway through. They will be turn translucent and crispy, and they really taste almost like potato chips! And totally guilt-free!

PS: These make a good substitute for crispy seaweed, the Japanese or Korean type that comes in individual packs and taste so umami with flakes of MSG all over. I reckon these kale chips would be great as a topping for noodle soups, or even crumbled over some pasta.

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