Chow Down to Eurovision 2015 - Switzerland

Beautiful, beautiful Switzerland how wonderful it is to cook from you again.

Switzerland the land of my favorite chocolate and the only time I've had motion sickness which was on the train over the Alps delivers a showstopper of a dish.

As mentioned when we visited Iceland, the internet provides a lot of inspiration for the Chow Down to Eurovision and when you see a dish called Cholera tart it is an instant Eurovision food qualifier.

According to the internet, which is never wrong, this dish was invented out of necessity during an 1836 Cholera outbreak. Due to limited availability of food people would put whatever they had into pastry, typically vegetables, bits of meat and cheese.  (Yes folks I've even added some history) 

Cholera is a delicious come as you are tart that with the right marketing could be a catchy food trend of epidemic proportion! 

Cholera tart
Ingredients

• 2 sheets of puff pastry (or home made, I know I didn't make it this time)
• 600-700g cooked mixed vegetables *see note
• 250-300g grated Swiss cheese or mix of your choice
• Optional additional soft rind cheese to garnish

Method

• Line a greased 25cm quiche pan with the puff pastry
• Add the vegetables
• Cover with cheese and garnish if desired
• Bake at 180°C for 30 minutes
• Serve though it might not be wise to tell your guests they are getting cholera for dinner

Note 

The cooked vegetables I used were a mixed of red cabbage, Romanesco broccoli, potato, purple cauliflower and red onions that was chopped to bite size, a great way to used up leftovers!

Being about necessity it doesn't have to be pretty....

As unexciting as it may seem the flavours really do all come together to make this a very enjoyable midweek dinner or lunch the next day.

In 2015 it was Mélanie René's Time to Shine for Switzerland and despite being in a forest with a coven of illuminating drummers and an outfit that could go from evil to good with the swish of a cape, Mélanie came last in semi final 2.

Will Switzerland suffer the same fate in the Chow Down to Eurovision?

Previous Switzerland Chow Down to Eurovision:

2014 Prawns with Devil's butter sauce 

2013 Chocolate Parfait with Chillied Almond

More tales from the wood panel Chinese

The 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year welcomes the year of the Horse (or whores as the BBC typo read, true, Google it).

I am thrilled about this year for no other reason than that it is no longer the year of the Snake! (Still hate them)

To accompany the Ham and Chicken rolls previously mentioned, I thought I'd recreate another authentic dish from the wood panelled Aussie-Chinese restaurants of my childhood.

Now when I say authentic I'm talking a restaurant that was more like a converted house on an inconvenient bend of the main road of East Gosford, its not quite Guangzhou.

Dome rice is the name I remember this dish by but I have no recollection whether that is what it was called on the menu.

I always found this dish magical as a kid, firstly because it had white sauce and that really should have only ever been used for vegetables. (what were they thinking??)

And secondly I had no idea of how they made the rice take on a shape, let alone fill it. I had visions of the rice being built up and around to enclose that special combination goodness. Those rice ads where the rice took on the shape of famous landmarks only further confused me.

In reflection I don't believed I was a particularly thick kid but the idea of serving an upside down bowl of rice just didn't cross my mind.

This doesn't take long to cook but there is a bit of prep at the start. It also seems like there are a million steps but it's really just a stir fry, in a bowl of rice with a white sauce but packed full of flavour and memories. 

Dome Rice
Ingredients

• 1-11/2 large mugs of basmati rice
• 2 chicken thigh fillet diced
• 200g beef diced (I had some scotch fillet)
• 2 x pinch bi carb soda
• 2 tbsp. oil (peanut/canola)
• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 4 Chinese sausages, diagonally sliced
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 2 carrots (see note on vegetables)
• 1 zucchini,
• 1 broccoli stem
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 small thumb ginger finely chopped
• 200g green prawns (halved if large)
• 2 spring onions chopped
• small handful of sliced bamboo shoots
• Small handful of chopped baby corn
• 6-8 quartered straw mushrooms (more if they are smaller)
• 2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 tbsp. Oyster sauce
• Salt and a pinch of Schezuan pepper to taste
• a few toasted almonds to decorate

 Method

• Place chicken and beef in two separate bowls of cold water and a pinch of bi carb soda
• Allow to rest for 20-30 mins (this is what makes the meat silky tender)
• Cook the rice (I use the microwave method of 1 mug rice 2 mugs water)
• Blanch the vegetables
• Make white sauce (see directions below)
• Drain the chicken and beef separately and pat dry with paper towel
• Into a hot wok add the oil and sesame oil
• Fry off the Chinese sausage them remove just the sausage and place in a bowl
• Repeat with chicken, fry till just cooked and remove to the bowl
• Repeat with beef, fry till just cooked and remove to the bowl
• Leave the juices in the wok as this forms the base of the sauce
• Reduce the heat and add the onions, garlic and ginger stir fry until tender
• Add the meats and prawns back to the wok
• Add all remaining ingredients and
• Add about a 1/4 cup of the white sauce to the wok and combine
• Take off the heat

• To assemble dome
• Spray a glass bowl with oil
• Spread the enough rice to line the bowl with a thin layer (about 3/4 of the rice)

My bowl has a diameter of 22cm and is about 12cm at it's centre

My walls are a bit thicker than I would normally have them, the rice was very hot and I was hungry!!

• Fill bowl with stir fry
• Cover with a layer of rice to enclose it all, press firmly so it takes on the shape of the bowl
• Place a plate over the bowl and then flip it over
• Remove the bowl and you'll have a great looking rice dome!

Steaming!

To serve pour over hot white sauce and top with some toasted almonds or more decorative vegetables.
There were only ever 3 almonds on the top of this dish at the restaurants but live a little and add a few more, I think I have 6!

 


 


 


 

 

White Sauce

Ingredients

• 40g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 250ml chicken stock
• 500ml light milk 

Sauce Method

• In a  saucepan melt the butter
• Add the flour and stir to combine, cook the flour for about 1 minute
• Add stock and milk together in a jug (or use all milk and a good quality stock cube)
• Slowly add some stock/milk mix  while whisking to make a smooth sauce
• As the sauce thickens add more stock a little at a time, you might not use all the stock.
• While whisking let the sauce cook to thicken further for a few minutes, it should have a thick pourable consistency (but not thick enough you can cut it!)
• Season to taste

Vegetable Note:

If you have a lot of spare time on your hands or don't mind heading to the land of all things naff, you could can use various cutters to shape the vegetables.

 

The broccoli stem adds element of surprise as it is a pale green star that looks nothing like it but tastes like broccoli.

 

The zucchini I sliced lengthy ways around the outside so I got .5cm thick slices with the skin on one side for the colour contrast.

 

Blanch each vegetable separately in boiling water for about 1 minute, then  refresh in icy water.

 

 

 

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Italy

Ciao tutti, come state oggi? Siamo arrivati in L'Itallia, penultimo paese in questa Chow Down a Eurovision 2013.

Unlike France I could probably continue this post in L'Italiano but I wont, Italy is our second last country in the Chow Down to Eurovision 2013.

The essence of Italian food is simplicity and when it comes to cucina povera it's about making do with what you can.

Today's dish is what I lived on when I was studying in Italy, not only could I eat it by the truckload but it was something I could actually say it! "Vorrei mezzo chilo di broccoli, grazie" once you have that half kilo of broccoli, pasta con i broccoli is the only way to go.

I also really love Italian cinema and spent a lot of time at the movies, I even saw Australia dubbed into Italian which was weird but there was a sneaky home sick tear shed.

Fiumi di Parole (river of words) by Jalisse was another surprise Eurovision treat when it featured in the movie Ex. She also won Sanremo in 1997 with the song but came 4th in Eurovision and Italy wasn't seen at Eurovision for 14 years!!

Pasta con i broccoli
Ingredients

• 1kg dried pasta any shape (penne or anything that holds the sauce)
• 500g broccoli
• 160g bottle of anchovies
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 200g parmesan or pecorino

Method

• Add pasta to a large pot of boiling salted water
• Cut the broccoli into pieces and add to the pasta pot once water is back to the boil
• Cook pasta till al dente and drain
• Return the pot to the stove
• Over medium heat add anchovies including their oil and olive oil to the pot
• Crush the garlic and add to pot and stir
• When anchovies have broken down add pasta back to pot and stir to coat
• Take off the heat and stir through the cheese
• Buon appetite
• You can also add a knob of butter or a touch more oil if you prefer
• The size of the broccoli is varies when I make it so it breaks down more but size if up to you.

Italy will host the 2014 Eurovision song contest, eh magari!! (I wish)

Marco Mengoni will sing his Sanremo winning song L'Essenziale in this years final, can he do better than Jalisse and win both? I can't cope with another 14 year Italian absence!

Buona Fortuna!

 

No soup for you.

Faced with the challenge of needing to devour any medicinal ingredient I could get my hands on, garlic, ginger, onions, chili, but it not being soup, I had to come up with a plan B.
Instantly rich curries and tagines come to mind, but lets not forget the man flu, it had to be ready in about 15mins and with a little effort as possible. So close to death you don't want to risk a delicious slow cook if there is a chance you won't live long enough to taste it.
The answer???

Man Flu Fried Rice

• Olive oil.
• 2 onions chopped (any colour)
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped (or as much as you or your beloved can stand)
• 4 cm ginger finely chopped
• 2 red chili sliced (seeds in or out it's up to you)
• 2 carrots grated
• 3 stalk celery sliced
• Garden fresh broccoli or any other vegetable you can get your hands on.
• 3 spring onions chopped
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• Salt and pepper
• Kecap Manis, as much as you like.

Method

• Saute onions, garlic ginger and chili with a good splash of olive oil in a fry pan.
• When the onions start to soften, add the carrot and celery and other vegetables and saute for about 5 mins, you can add a little bit of water or stock if it is too dry.
• Add the spring onions and rice.
• Add Kecap Manis, salt and pepper to taste.
• This version was meatless but you can add any meat of your choice...if you have the strength to go to the shops.
• grab a box of tissues, a blanket, pillow, boxed set of your favourite DVD and pray you have enough strength to eat.