Lunch: Grilled Halibut with Mash and Genovese Pesto. Yummy. I made the pesto in the traditional way. Now I can see why practically nobody (outside of Genoa) does it. Though the taste was superior to the food processor version.
Lunch Dessert: Chocolate Fondant with Framboise Whipped Cream. I adapted this out of Gordon Ramsay's 'Fast Food' cookbook, which is so useful. Everything in there can be thrown together in 30 minutes or less and it produces a great result. Nothing out of a can in there, just fresh ingredients. The inside was molten and gooey.
Dinner: Thai Green Curry with Chicken. OK. I cheated here. In the process of searching through the cupboard (and fridge) I saw that I had a perfectly legitimate jar of Thai Green Curry Paste. I normally like to make my own curry paste (and advocate it forcefully), but I do want to work my way through that jar eventually, so I used it. I bought it in an Asian food store and the words on the jar are in Thai - I can only assume it came from there.
Dessert: Lychee, Passion Fruit and Blood Orange Ice Cream. I had a blood orange and a can of lychees (in syrup) and some passion fruit and a bunch of eggs. I thought it would go nicely after the spiciness of the curry, and was in keeping with the whole Thai theme. This turned out pretty good.
Lunch: Grilled Halibut with Mash and Genovese Pesto
2 oz. basil, fresh, leaves only
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon pecorino cheese
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup olive oil, good quality
800 g halibut steaks
5 russet potatoes, large, skinned and cut into chunks
100 ml milk
50 g butter, cut into cubes, kept cold
Start the mash by putting the cut-up potato in a saucepan. Cover the potatoes with cold water. Place over medium-high heat until it starts to bubble, then reduce the heat to medium low and cover, simmering for 20-25 minutes or until they pierce easily with a knife. Meanwhile, pull the fish out to bring to room temperature. Drizzle both sides with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, coating the sides with you fingers to ensure even oil distribution. Set aside.
Make the pesto. (The traditional Genovese way has you crushing everything by hand in a mortar and pestle, which DOES improve the quality of the pesto by drawing out more of the essences inside the basil) Combine the basil, pine nuts, garlic and a bit of salt in a mortar and pestle or small blender. Mix until combined into a rough paste. Now add the cheeses and salt and pepper and mix through thoroughly, slowly adding the oil in, stirring constantly. Check for taste and consistency and set aside. It should be a liquidy paste now with some texture to it.
Finish the mash. Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, as you don't want to scald it. While that's heating, drain the potatoes and keep the saucepan you used handy. Take the potatoes and pass them through a ricer or a drum-sieve (if you have one), the idea being that you can eliminate virtually all of the lumps this way. If you lack this equipment (or have just completed this step) put the potatoes back into the saucepan you used to cook the potatoes. Put it back on the stove for a second and watch for steam to start coming out of the pan, as you are now getting rid of excess moisture left behind. After a bit of that, take it off of the heat and start adding the butter cubes, a few at a time.
Get your grill pan (or non-stick pan) for your fish going over medium-high heat while you finish the mash. Beat the potatoes and butter senseless with a wooden spoon at this point, to incorporate the butter. Once the butter is fully mixed in, add a few more butter cubes, and repeat, until all of the butter is mixed in. Add some salt and pepper here and add some of the hot milk and really give it a good bashing with the wooden spoon, stirring (and adding milk as necessary) to achieve a creamy, smooth mash consistency. Check the seasoning and adjust as necessary. Keep warm in a low oven while you do the fish.
If the grill pan is nice and hot now, go ahead and start the fish. Place the fish in the pan, and it should sizzle somewhat loudly. If not, it means the pan is not hot enough and you should pull the fish off and wait another minute or so. If it sizzles pleasingly, put all of the fish on there and cook for about 2 minutes, until you start to see some browning on the bottom. Flip the fish over in the same order as you put them in, and allow to cook for another 1 1/2 minutes. While this is cooking, plate the mash and the pesto. When the fish is cooked, pull out of the pan and arrange on the plate. Drizzle with good olive oil (lemon-infused, if you have it) and serve.
Lunch Dessert: Chocolate Fondant with Framboise Whipped Cream
50 g butter
2 tsp. cocoa powder
50 g chocolate, bittersweet, good quality
1 egg
1 egg yolks
60 g sugar
2 tablespoons irish cream, or suitable liqueur
50 g flour, sifted
100 ml whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar, AKA icing sugar
1 tablespoon framboise, or any berry liqueur
Heat the oven to 160C (320F). Butter four ramekins and dust liberally with cocoa powder. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a simmering saucepan of water, then take off the heat and stir until smooth.
Using an electric mixer, beat the whole egg, egg yolk and sugar together until pale and thick, then incorporate the chocolate mixture. Fold in the liqueur, followed by the flour.
Divide the mixture between the ramekins and bake for 12 minutes. While that is baking, beat the whipping cream, icing sugar and berry liqueur together until it holds together and has increased in size.
When the fondants are baked, turn them out onto plates and serve immediately with a dollop of the whipped cream.
Dinner: Thai Green Curry with Chicken
2 tablespoons peanut oil, or wok oil, if you can get it
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
2 thai chilies, sliced thinly
4 chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
3 tablespoons thai green curry paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup light coconut milk
4 kaffir lime leaves, optional, but really tasty
12 leaves basil, fresh, torn
2 tablespoons peanuts, toasted and crushed
1-½ cup jasmine rice, cooked
Cook the rice in accordance with package directions. If you have a rice cooker, this makes things so much easier.
Meanwhile, make the rest of the dish. Get a large non-stick pan hot over medium-high heat. Combine the garlic, ginger and chilies in a small bowl to have close by. When the pan is hot, add a spoonful of this mixture to the hot oil. Almost, immediately add the chicken and saute around until they go light brown, and most of the pink is gone. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Add the curry paste and another bit of the spice mixture. Give it a quick stir just to heat it through and then add the chicken stock, coconut milk and lime leaves. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and stir through. When the liquid starts to bubble, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, allowing the liquid to reduce some, about 10-15 minutes.
Add the chicken back to the pan and allow to heat through and cook the rest of the way, about another 3-5 minutes. Check the seasoning and adjust levels of garlic/ginger/chili, curry paste and/or salt and pepper. Add the basil in now, just stirring to combine.
Put rice in a bowl and ladle the curry over the top. Top with toasted peanuts and serve.
Dessert: Lychee, Passion Fruit and Blood Orange Ice Cream
1 can lychees, in syrup
3 passion fruit, insides scooped out
1 blood orange, zest and juice
6 egg yolks
¾ cup sugar, divided use
3 cups milk
Dump the lychees and syrup from the can into a saucepan. Add the scooped out insides of the passion fruits and the orange segments, orange zest and orange juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat the medium-low and simmer for about 20-30 minutes to get the lychees nice and soft.
With about 15 minutes to go on the fruits, get the milk and 1/2 cup of the sugar to a simmer in another saucepan. While that is coming to heat, whisk the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of sugar vigorously, until it turns pale yellow.
Dump the fruit mixture into a blender and blend until liquidy. There will be passion fruit seeds left behind and that's OK. Strain the mixture through a sieve, discarding the solids. Set this aside.
Now that the milk is hot, take a few ladles of it and put gradually into the egg yolk mixture to temper it. Stir it around to incorporate and add it back to the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Add the fruit juice to the saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring constantly. You DON'T want the milk to boil or it will all turn into a curdled mess. When the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove from the heat and cool rapidly in a bowl set inside a larger bowl of ice water, stirring to release the heat.
Move the cooled mixture into a container, and chill for 24 hours for the best consistency. If you can't wait, chuck it into your ice cream maker and get it started. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can freeze the stuff as is, giving it a stir every hour or so until it reaches the consistency you want, though I cannot vouch for this method.
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