1 jar of cucumbers

I've gone pickle mad!  Here are two recipes for cucumbers when they are in abundance.  Seriously I think that my cucumber plants are in conspiracy.  I go out in the morning and the cucumbers are less than the length of my little finger, next day - enormous!  To use them up I keep my cucumber jars over winter and fill them up over summer.  These are refrigerator pickles, meaning they need to be kept in the fridge until used up.  - so don't make too many!

 

Bread and butter cucumbers is a simple and delicious recipe, you can make sliced cucumbers or spears, or if you have lots of tiny ones, leave them whole.  The fermented cucumber recipe is from my mother in law  (as remembered by Val!).  It originally comes from Ukraine. I now grow my own horseradish just for the leaves! 

 

Fermented food is very good for you, but MUST be eaten fairly quickly.  Unlike the bread and butter cucumbers, these will not keep for long as they contain garlic.  If garlic is not handled correctly it can cause botulism, not something anyone wants.  So, make them, leave them on the shelf for 2 days, open them and put them in the fridge, eat over the next 2 weeks.  Any longer and I would throw them out.  (or leave out the garlic!).  For a great article on these cucumbers read the interesting blog post here by FoodieUkraine.com. 

 

 

Vietnamese fish cakes

I have several recipes for these fishcakes, and they all involve fish and red curry paste.  Then the fish cakes turn out too strong for me, with no taste of the fish.  When I saw a Bill's recipe with no curry paste, I tried it out, found it a little too simple and modified it as below.  These cakes taste more of fish than curry and so they do not assault the senses!

 

If you cannot get snake beans, just use normal beans. If you like the fish cakes a lot more spicy, add a chopped chilli to the fish mix.  Serve with a simple Vietnamese salad of lettuce, mint, coriander, sliced mango, bean sprouts and a dressing of lime, olive oil seasoned with a dash of soy, fish sauce and sugar.  As for the fish - I use the cheapest white fish fillets at the market, the only thing to avoid is very oily fish.  You can make really little fish cakes and serve them as starters for a party with the dipping sauce.

 

I made a batch of these and froze them, then vacuum  sealed them and froze them - turned out great, just defrost and fry.

 

The recipe makes enough for 4, with a few left over for lunch the next day.

 

Mayonnaise in 10 seconds flat

When I saw Matt Preston do this on Masterchef I did not believe it actually worked, in fact I made the mayo an hour earlier than I needed to because I did not believe it.   But it does!  It's the same basic mayonnaise recipie I have tried to make lots of time, but using a different method. Believe me I have tried dribbling in the oil, I have tried using the blender - but mayonnaise has never worked for me at home.

Well, here is the link online: http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes/slow-roasted-lamb-with-flatbread-and-mayo.  I have just put the method into this recipie, as it seems to make more sense that way.  To make it you need a stick blender and its cup.  
A couple of things to remember:

• be gentle with the ingredients
• the yolk needs to be whole
• put the basket of the stick blender over the yolk, so that the blades immediately blend the yolk
• then gently bring it up the blender cup to make the mayonnaise.

Thia Beef Salad for a crowd

This recipie is what I make when I need to feed a lot of people, its easy and quick to do and tastes great.  The secret is in the roasted rice, and the dressing. The amount of steak you use depends upon how many people you are feeding, but the salad ingredients make enough for about 6 people.

Always taste the dressing to see that it is balanced, it should taste a little salty and sour, but not too much.

 

Fattouch

You can vary the recipie by using slightly different salad ingredients, sometimes I just use tomatoe, basil and cucumber.  Do what suites your family.  You can make this up the the lebanese bread, and leave it in the fridge.  Then at the last minute microwave the bread and toss.

Another variation, which makes it a full meal is to add chick peas.  The mint and parsley can be chopped (or not!) as finely as you like it, and you can sprinkle the sumac on the top if you prefer.

Neil's Chicken and noodle salad

Neil Perry's Saturday recipie in the Herald is looked forward to in my house, we have tried quite a few of them.  This one has stuck for several years as a firm favourite.


To make your own chilli oil, lightly toast and seed 20 fresh chillies, then grind them in a spice grinder. Heat 2 cups of oil to 155°C and pour it on the chilli powder. Leave for 1 hour, then strain.
Prawns are also lovely in the salad.

Chang’s Original Crispy Noodle Salad

This is the original recipie that everyone brings to a BBQ!
You can add shredded carrot, or red cabbage in as well.  For a full meal add shredded duck or chicken from the Chinese BBQ store.