Pistachio-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Roasted Asparagus, Sweet Potato Mash and Sherry Wine Reduction

 

Today is the last day of the Easter long weekend! Everyday had been full of cooking and fine-wine-dining in the comfort of my own home. For Easter Monday, I made rack of lamb, as per my suggestion for possible Easter dinners. Inspired once again by Chef Gordan Ramsay, this time his recipe for herb-crusted rack of lamb, I took a step further and made a pistachio crust made with pistachios, parsley, bread crumbs, salt n' pepper and olive oil. I was very disappointed to find very little pistachios available in the supermarket I went to. I salvaged what I could at the bulk section, just enough to cover my lamb rack and have some extra leftover. The pistachio nuts gave the crust an earthy, nutty and savory flavor and a little bit of parsley was added for subtle flavor and a bust of color. Since the crust is vegan, I may use the left overs to crust some tofu for dinner later on in the week.
I followed the cooking technique of Chef Gordan Ramsay for my dear lamb rack: scoring, seasoning, searing, resting, dijon and all. I served the rack of lamb with roasted asparagus (the best flippin' thing on Earth), sweet potato mash and a Sherry wine reduction. I love the sweet and fruity flavor of Sherry for cooking; not a fan of it with my meal. I'll stick to an organic Cabernet Sauvignon instead.

Pistachio Crust
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts
1 cup Panko/white bread crumbs
1/2 cup parsley leaves
1 tbsp olive oil 
salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, blend the pistachio nuts until crumbly. Add remaining ingredients and blitz until parsley leaves are well blended and mixture is green. Pour onto a plate and dip lamb rack, coating generously and evenly with the crust mixture.

 

Roasted Asparagus
Asparagus. As much as you want.
Olive oil. To grease your baking sheet and coat the asparagus.
Sea Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Trim asparagus of its' woody, chewy, non-flavorful ends. Take the end of the asparagus between your thumb and forefinger and bend until it breaks. The asparagus automatically breaks just where the woody part ends and the fresh, juicy asparagus begins. Easy-peasy.
Grease a large enough baking sheet to avoid the asparagus spears from crowding. Toss the spears with olive oil and your salt n' pepper. If you want more flavor, add a zest of one lemon or a few thinly sliced cloves of garlic. Even better, dice some bacon, crisp it up and use the bacon fat in place of the olive oil. Delish!
Roast for 15-20 minutes until the spears limp when you hold it by the end.

 

For myself, I made a Spinach, Mushroom, Goat Cheese and Pine Nut Phyllo tart. Mouthful, I know.
It's something I made a long time ago for a Christmas gathering and I got the inspiration from Chatelaine .
It's pretty simple to put together and it's a change from the puff pastry that I love.

Beef Wellington for Good Friday

 I am a huge fan of Chef Gordon Ramsay. I know many people will disagree with me but that is my opinion and he is a HUGE inspiration for me (even if he sorts of dislikes vegetarians ahaha!).
I love watching him and his shows, from the F-word, Kitchen Nightmares, Kill Your Meat Before You Eat, to his Great Escape adventures, MasterChef and of course, Hell's Kitchen.
I bet many culinary enthusiasts have come across his video on how to make Beef Wellington. I have always wanted to try it but being that beef filets/tenderloins are uber pricey, I never really dared to think about it. A few days ago, my family and I were brainstorming what to have for the Easter long weekend. We were pretty tired of turkey from Christmas, ham from New Year's, pork from Lunar New Year's, duck from  a dinner a couple weeks ago and chicken from a dinner a couple days ago. My lil bro brought up Beef Wellington, I wanted to make rack of lamb and we wanted to try goose. Geese are hard to come by this time of year so we had to choose between Beef Wellington and lamb. Since the weekend is long and we're food lovers, we decided to have Beef Wellington on Good Friday, possibly Filet Mignon (from the left-over cut we got for the Beef Welly) for Saturday and Sunday and Rack of Lamb for Easter Monday. I'm going to have a huge cooking adventure this weekend. :D

I did a lot of research on Beef Wellington and Gordon Ramsay's version was pretty simple. Some varieties excluded the mustard; used both pate and the mushroom duxelles; and even used crepes to avoid getting the pastry soggy.
I decided to incorporate all versions.
I layered the beef parcel with the homemade crepes, liver pate, prosciutto, and mushroom duxelles. The beef filet was brushed with mustard and I wrapped it all up in some store-bought puff pastry (I have no time to make it from scratch. It's just easier to go buy some.)
I was very, very, very nervous when I placed it in the oven. I was afraid it may come out raw. However, it came out just right: medium rare. And it was a hit with the family! I served thick slices of the Beef Wellington with roasted parsnips, potatoes, carrots, yellow sweet potatoes, onions and mushroom gravy.

Huge beef tenderloin from Costco. Seems like a fortune but it's so worth it, and very good $$/serving

It's beautiful!!!

Browning the filet! Get color to get the flavor.

Layering of crepes, liver pate, prosciutto and mushroom duxelles

(Left) Mushroom Gravy, Roasted Vegetables, Beef Wellington, Portobello Wellington

For myself, I made a Portabello Wellington. I sandwiched  two roasted portabello mushrooms with goat cheese, covered it in mushroom duxelles, crepes and puff pastry. It was fantastic!!

Portobello Wellington!

Plum and Cardamom-Custard Flaugnarde Tart

My apologies for the lack of posts! I am still alive (trying real hard) and I am still cooking, although not many dishes that are deemed worthy to have its own blog post...
If you'd like to follow my daily eats, you can follow me on Instagram at thepurpleshadow or follow online at http://instagram.com/thepurpleshadow/.
I've made this tart a while back and I've finally gotten around to posting the beautiful thing.
It started out with me craving a fruit tart but I'm not really a fruit-lover plus the only fruits I had on hand were bruised bananas,wrinkly apples, plums and canned pineapples. Since the fruits would not compliment each other in a fruit tart, I decided to just use one kind, choosing the plums over the others because there was an ungodly amount and I've never cooked/baked with plums before. I was going to make a fresh plum tart but I wanted to have my fruit cooked and so I opted to baking it with some sort of custard to hold it all together. I wanted to make sure if such a dish existed and was even edible and with a bit of research, the word "Flaugnarde" made its way into my culinary vocabulary.
"Flaugnarde" is a French dessert that bakes fruit in a "flan-like" batter, which to me, means custard.It is usually baked in a buttered dish, without a crust but I wanted to turn it into tart. So I did, muahahahaha!
I also wanted to have some kind of warmth and love added to my dessert thus my custard was spiced with ground cardamom and a pinch of cinnamon. It was fantastic!

Tart Shell
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tbsp butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour and maybe a bit more
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp table salt

Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a fluted tart pan with a removable bottom with the softened butter
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and vanilla.
In a food processor, add in the flour, sugar, salt and pulse to combine. Add the butter and short-pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolk mixture and pulse just until it forms a moist, crumbly mass. The dough should hold together when squeezed.
Transfer the dough to the tart pan and press into the bottom and edges of the pan with your hands or the bottom of a dry measure cup. Wrap the pan in plastic and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.

You need to blind bake the shell to ensure that it doesn't soak up the juices of your fruit and the custard.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Prick the bottom and sides of your tart shell several times with a fork. Place a piece of parchment paper on your shell and fill with rice, beans or pie weights, to ensure that your tart shell doesn't bubble but remain flat. Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and pie weights. Reduce the heat to 350°F and continue baking for another 10 minutes until slightly golden browned on the edges and bottom. Cool on a rack.

Plums and Cardamom Custard
6-8 fresh plums, sliced (I had a mix of the black and red varieties; red is sweeter)
3 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk or half and half cream
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp cardamom powder
pinch of cinnamon powder

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cut the plums in half lengthwise, and remove the stones. Slice into 1/3" inch slices.
In a bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the flour and sugar, and then add a bit of milk, whisking until it dissolves and looks like cement. Add the remaining milk, eggs and vanilla, whisking until just combined.
Arrange your plums neatly in the cooled crust, in a single layer if you can. Pour custard gently over your plums.
Bake until the plums are soft, and the custard no longer jiggles in the center and is just beginning to brown, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and let cool before serving. Can be served warm or chilled, with a little dusting of powdered sugar!

Vegan Pho with a New Ingredient!

My mom dropped by Costco the other day and picked up this amazing treasure: a container of dried gourmet mushrooms. It contains 25% dried procini, 25% shiitake, 25% yellow boletes and 25% oyster mushrooms. My gooodness, there are so many things I could do with such an ingredient. Sauces, soups, fillings, dips...etc. etc. etc. I used it today to make a simple gourmet vegan pho broth and it is so blissfully delicious.

Vegan Pho Broth
Serves: 2

3 1/2 cups water
2/3 cup dried gourmet mushrooms, rinsed as instructed
2 black cardamon pods
1 stick cinnamon
3 star anise
1/2 yellow onion, charred and peeled
1 ginger, charred and peeled
6 vegan mushroom balls or vegan meatballs
salt to taste


Bring water and  mushrooms to a boil. Lower heat and simmer the cardamon, cinnamon, and star anise for 5 minutes (you can add the spices to a spice bag or tie it up in a coffee filter to avoid serving the spices). Add the ginger and onion and simmer for another 15 minutes.  Season with salt to taste, add the meatballs and bring it up to a boil.

Noodles 
1 package frozen pho rice noodles, cooked according to package or dried ones, soaked in warm water overnight and cooked for 2 minutes in boiling water

Toppings
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
 2 partially poached eggs (optional!)

1/4 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/4 bunch of green onions, chopped
1/4 bunch of Mexican coriander, "ngo gai"

In a small bowl, mix all the fresh herbs together. Set aside.
 
Condiments
Beans sprouts and Thai basil leaves
lime wedges
Sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce

Prepare two large bowls with portioned noodles. Top with white onions and partially poached egg for each bowl. While the broth boils, ladle the broth over the onions and egg then add the meatballs from broth. Add a spoonful of the fresh herbs on top. Crack fresh black pepper over your dish, serve hot and with the condiments of bean sprouts, basil, lime, Sriracha and hoisin.
 
!! For vegan pho, opt-out of the egg and use seasoned and pan-fried extra-firm tofu!
!! If you can't find dried mushrooms, using a fresh mixture of portabello and button mushrooms works swell as well, just simmer the portabello first then add the button mushrooms with the meatballs.
!!You can opt out on some of the condiments but I really recommend trying to find the Mexican coriander for the fresh herb mix. It's a must-have when you want to appreciate the aromatic appeal of pho, whether vegan or non-vegan.

Enjoy!!

Quinoa and Healthy Eating Days

Hello everyone!
It's been a month since I posted anything: my apologies for the delay!
After New Year's, I have been crammed with school but I have also been dedicating whatever time I have to healthier eating habits. In the last week, I have committed myself to a strict quinoa eating diet, cutting out bread, pasta, and rice. Within five days, I had lost 7lbs both with my quinoa diet and committing myself to a workout routine. I've decided to feature the quinoa dishes that I made during my diet since not many people know what this super-food is nor its health benefits (and to commorate the recent 2013 decalaration of the UN in calling this new year the declared International Year of Quinoa).
Quinoa is a pseudo-cereal or pseudo-grain because although it looks like a grain, it is actually a seed. It is a super-food held in sacred standards by the Inca, who viewed the grain-like crop as having the abilities to provide their warriors with stamina and strength as well as feed the population. It is known as a superfood because it is high in nutritional value, especially protein (almost 11.5 grams of protein per 100 grams) and is also high in amino acids, fiber and low in carbohydrates. It is gluten free and since it is very versatile, it is ideal as a great alternative for anyone who does not include gluten in their diets.

The first quinoa dish I made was a breakfast scramble, with hints of cilantro, cumin and tumeric. I cooked quinoa until the right doneness (I like them still slightly crunchy) and scrambled it with an egg, some turmeric, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper, diced tomatoes and finished it off with cilantro. It was so yummeh! I ate some leftovers cold and it was still good!

The second dish I made was a Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa soup that lasted me for around two and a half days (or two dinners and one lunch). It was seasoned with Mexican spices like chile powder and cumin and of course, I loaded it up with a lot of chopped cilantro! The recipe is completely vegan, unless you want meat, you can tear up some leftover chicken or cut 1 raw chicken breast into strips and saute it with the onions n' garlic

Black Bean, Corn and Quinoa Soup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 glove of garlic, minced or 1 1/2 tsp of garlic powder if you are lazy.
2 tsp chile powder (or more if you like heat)
2 tsp cumin (more if you like)
1 tsp coriander powder (more if you like)
1 tsp paprika (more if you like)
4 cups of vegetable stock or chicken stock
1 medium can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup of frozen corn
2/3 cup cooked quinoa (or 1 cup if you want)
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped (or 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro)
salt and pepper to taste

In a small pot, heat the olive oil on high heat. Add the onions and garlic and lower the heat to medium. Saute until onions are slightly transparent, then add the spices. Cook until the spices become aromatic.
Add in the stock, beans, corn and bring the heat up to high.
When the soup comes to a gentle boil, add the quinoa and chopped tomato. Simmer for around 5 minutes then  Season to taste.
Remove from heat then stir in the chopped cilantro and serve immediately.


The third dish I made with quinoa was also another soup: Kale, White Bean and Quinoa Soup. This one also lasted me around two and a half days (or two dinners and one lunch). This one was more "hearty" and fresh and less spice went into it, if any at all. I used the recipe found here but I did cut the recipe down to fit my own serving requirements. The kale adds an extra boost to you nutritional intake as well! Kale is very high in Vitamin K (helps prevent blood clots), Vitamin C and A as well as fiber, iron and calcium. The soup itself is very filling because of the white beans and quinoa so I felt very full very quickly. It helped me reset my metabolism by eating less for more :).

A dish that I made twice because I loved it so much was the Quinoa Omelette found in an amazing quinoa cookbook that I own. It is called Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming. I have yet to try the dessert portion of the cookbook but I will very soon in the near future! I only used the recipe for the eggs and the filling was basically whatever I wanted. The first time I made it, the omelette was overloaded with four different types of sweet bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, a sundried-tomato "pesto" and crumbled feta cheese. The second time was just green bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and crumbled feta cheese. Maybe I am biased because I love omelettes aha <3

Egg Mixture for Omelette
2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

2 tbsp cooked quinoa
1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

Whisk all the ingredients up. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet or frying pan then add the egg mixture into the hot pan, waiting around a minute before taking chopsticks or a fork to draw circles into the omelette, then swirl pan to cover the holes you just made with the uncooked egg mixture. Cook until the edges start to come away from the pan. Add your filling on one half and fold over with the other half with a spatula. Serve hot. Happy omelette making!

Another dish that I also really loved was my Avocado Quinoa Uramaki (Inside-out) Sushi. I made sure to cook the quinoa with a little bit of extra water so that it becomes softer and seasoned it with a mixture of rice vinegar, mirin, water, salt, and a little bit of sugar. If you don't want to get these ingredients or if you're too lazy to make the sushi rice dressing, there are pre-made dressings available at Asian super markets!
I like this sushi because the quinoa adds a fantastic nutty flavor to the roll, plus it is gluten free so it's even better! I topped the rolls with Sriracha Sauce for an extra kick. If you don't like avocados, cucumber, or any filling is fine! Just make sure you have a sushi mat (covered with plastic wrap for easy clean-up and less stickiness) and that the quinoa is cooked till soft so it would hold together!

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