Beer battered SOS

As I was checking Facebook I saw a cry for help after an incident with a pre mixed packet batter "EPIC FAIL"

With a quick adjustment from inside to outside undies it was Super Kitchen Boy to the rescue, fighting evil dodgy packet mixes where ever they may be!

You're still back at the underpants on the outside visual, aren't you? So I'll leave you with it and just head to the recipes.


Beer Batter
Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 330ml of icy cold beer (I used Peroni* but any light flavoured beer would work)

Method

• Add flour to a mixing bowl
• Whisk in the beer to combine
• Don't stress about lumps!
• It shouldn't be too thick as the batter will take over rather than being the coating for the dish
• Let rest covered in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes prior to use
• If it gets too thick add a little more beer

I did thin the batter after this picture with about 30ml more beer



This was my mixed fried seafood but use any boneless fish, calamari, soft shell crab etc. that you can get your hands on.

Quasi Fritto Misto
Ingredients for about 4 peeps

• 400g rockling fillet
• 400g blue grenadier fillet
• 8 green prawns, deveined with tails on
• 8 scallops roe on or off depending on your preference
• 11/2 cups seasoned flour (salt and pepper)
• 1 quantity of beer batter
• sunflower or canola oil for frying

Method

• Cut the fish into portions just bigger than bite size (depending on your mouth)
• Lightly coat the fish, prawns and scallops in the seasoned flour
• Heat the oil in a deep pan or wok over high heat
• Dip fish portions into batter and then let the excess drip off
• Gently plunge the fish into the hot oil and cook for about 1 minute on each side depending the size of your fish
• As soon as the batter has browned remove from the oil and drain
• If you don't have a draining attachment a metal colander over a bowl keeps the batter crispy rather than draining on paper towel
• Repeat with the remaining seafood, taking care not to over cook it.
• The scallops take about 30secs depending on their size and the prawns just over 1 minute
• Sprinkle with a little sea salt and serve with rocket, lemon wedges, ciabatta and capsicum mayo

Weird lighting but I'm inspired to do a saffron batter now....

This was inspired by a rouille that would normally accompany a bouillabaisse

Capsicum mayo
Ingredients

• 2  red capsicums
• 2  cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of mayonnaise (I didn't make it...oops)
• About 50-60g of ciabatta or stale bread
• Salt and pepper

Method

• Put the whole capsicums and garlic cloves in a small baking dish with a splash of olive oil
• Cover with foil and bake in a 150°C oven for about 1 hour.
• Turn the oven off and either take them out or leave till you are ready to use them
• Peel the skin from the capsicum, de-stork and remove any seeds
• Peel the garlic
• Blend all ingredients together and season to taste
• Serve chilled

 
*not a paid endorsement of Peroni but happy to receive a case anytime!!

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Belgium

We have arrived safe and sound in beautiful Belgium but let me tell you we had a bit of an adventure getting here. This recipe involved having to go to Rome and almost every bottle shop in Melbourne, ok it's a bit of a stretch but work with me I'm building the drama. So lets begin, 16th January 2009 10.35am flight from Heathrow to Fiumicino.........maybe I should just do the condensed version??
When I decided to do the Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 I put a call out for recipes and ideas to my friends from various European nations. We were all connected through our time studying in Roma. It is amazing how people can bond through a shared experience of overcoming adversity, ours was Italian grammar e i verbi, la gramatica non è perfetta. My favourite experience with this group was when the school tried to replace the teacher we all adored, Sylvia, for one we couldn't stand. (All I have to say is Talk Show and the memories will come flooding back to those in the class reading this) So as a group we all stormed into the Director's office and demanded that the change not occur, this happened in about 8 different languages, lots of nervous angry facial contortions and hands gestures but in the end Sylvia stayed with us. Yay for people power, but to be honest I think they just gave in so they didn't have to endure trying to speak with us again. There was almost a complete semi final of Eurovision amongst the class, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, and Ukraine who referred to me only as "Australia" so I referred to her as "Ukraine", I'm not sure if we actually know each others names.

So the call out for Belgium was answered by Virginie who gave me this website of Flanders recipes for ideas. Grazie mille Virginie, sei sempre gentile.

Of course I decided on the beer soup, so our adventure continues. The recipe called for Rodenbach beer which with a little help from the peeps on twitter I found a store that had it, great. Only hitch by the time I got there they had sold out, as had every other store that stocked it I tried. I finally saw a bottle shop with the sign "hundreds of beers in store" what they failed to mention was the sign referred to the empty cans on display and not the 1 fridge of 6 packs. I held out hope till yesterday but I still couldn't get it so you know how I love a plan B.

I thought I'd substitute a beer of similar flavour, this involved me standing and starring at the store beer fridge till they thought I was possibly a performance art statue. I eventually found one that mentioned caramel toffee and biscuit flavour in the description, how could I lose and well transaction complete.

Before I get to the soup, today's Eurovision morsel is Belgium's 1986 winner Sandra Kim. The clip I've included is a remake of her J'aime La Vie video 25 years later. Watch out as she swaps the ice-cream of her youth for a juice, personally I would have stuck with the ice-cream.

Beer Soup
Ingredients

• 2 leeks
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 6 sections of lamb neck
• 660ml Rodenbach or Black beer
• 2 cups beef stock (or water and 2 cubes)
• 150ml cream
• chives to garnish

Method

• Chop the leek and celery into 3 cm pieces
• Add the oil to a large boiler on high heat
• Brown the lamb necks
• Add the leek and celery and coat with oil
• Add the beer, stock and reduce the heat to a simmer
• Simmer for about 1 hour till the lamb is tender and soup has reduced slightly
• Remove the lamb and break up meat, discard the bones
• Blend the vegetables with the stock
• Add the cream and stir through
• Add the meat back to the soup
• Serve and sprinkle with some chives (garnish is love)
• Don't drink the beer before it hits the soup!

 

 

It may not taste anything like the original beer but this soup was so delicious I could eat a keg of the stuff!

 

This year Belgium will find out if Love Kills from Roberto Bellarosa can bring home another win.

goei chance!