Pulling your leg

Those who know me know that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool supporter of the local Super Rugby team, The Brumbies (or ACT Brumbies as us old-hands remember them). Years ago, the team chef would email out recipes to the club's members, and one that I loved at first sight was a recipe for BBQ Pulled Pork. While I love pork, my wife unfortunately breaks out in eczema if she has too much of it, meaning I usually have to substitute it with lamb or beef. I made it a few years ago using lamb and loved the results, and with winter around the corner I was keen to have another crack at it. While I could remember the key points of the recipe, I couldn't find the original and so set out for a bit of internet research as a starting point to modify. What I got was this. It's based off a recipe from heathersdish.com so a fair portion of the credit is due there. It takes a long time, but it's so worth it in the end.

BBQ Pulled Beef Brisket

Serves 14 @ 150g/serve

Ingredients

2 kg beef brisket (or other stewing steak), visible fat removed (a good butcher can do this for you)
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup tomato sauce (ketchup)
I had some homemade chipotle sauce that I substituted for ketchup. Recipe link at the bottom
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbs dijon mustard
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
6 onions, quartered
3 bulbs garlic, halved

2-3 cups good BBQ sauce (I'm a fan of Sweet Baby Ray's)

Method

1. Put all the ingredients except the beef, onions, and garlic in a slow cooker and whisk to combine. 
2. Add 4 of the onions and 2 bulbs of garlic to the sauce. Roll up and secure the beef then place in the slow cooker and top with the remaining onions and garlic. Prior to rolling the beef, I smeared it with extra chipotle sauce to add extra flavour.
3. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for at least 12 hours. 
4. Remove the beef and shred with a couple of forks. Reserve about a cup of the liquid from the slow cooker and discard the remaining liquid, onions and garlic.
5. Return the shredded beef to the slow cooker, add reserved liquid and the good BBQ sauce. Cook on low for another 6 hours and enjoy! 

Serve it up on a bread roll with some gherkin relish, melted cheese and coleslaw, alongside some mash potatoes and greens, or as a pizza topping, or hell, just eat it straight out of the container! It's that good!

Side note: Last summer I worked on smoking my own chipotle chillies. From the resulting harvest I made myself some homemade chipotle BBQ sauce, but hadn't really made use of it due in part to it's mild heat, and in part to the flavour which was closer to a pasta sauce than a BBQ sauce (possibly due to using tomato paste concentrate instead of a passata or similar). This added flavour in the beef was sensational. If you want to make your own, the recipe is here: Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

Stirring up a Stir-fry

Many, many years ago, whilst I was quite young, my dad took a year or two of Asian cuisine cooking classes. Each week, he'd come back with at least one new recipe to practice with, and many and varied were the meals he'd cook for us to taste and provide feedback on. Whether the feedback was wanted, I'm not sure. But there were a number of meals which quickly became staples to our dining regime, and when I was older and moved out of home, I sought out my dad for instruction in how to cook a number of these meals for myself, and now for my own family. A perennial favourite, both in my childhood and now, was strips of beef, stir-fried with baby broccoli and water chestnuts. I hope you like it.

Beef and Broccoli with Water Chestnuts in Oyster Sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

Marinade

1 tbs tapioca starch

1 tbs oyster sauce

1 tbs dry sherry

1 tbs dark soy sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

Seasoning sauce

2 tbs oyster sauce

1 tbs dry sherry

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp tapioca starch

500 g beef stir fry strips (or whole topside steak, sliced into 0.5 cm strips)

250 g baby broccoli, cut into 5 cm lengths

10 water chestnuts, sliced (or a can of presliced water chestnuts if you're lazy like me)

2 tsp minced ginger (or 2 cm of julienned ginger root)

2 shallots, cut into 2 cm lengths

salt

2 tbs peanut oil

Boiled rice or boiled or fried noodles to serve

Method

1. Combine ingredients for your marinade, add beef then marinate in the fridge for 1 hour (or overnight)
2. Parboil or steam the broccoli until just tender-crisp. Combine ingredients for your seasoning sauce.
3. Add 1 tbs of oil to a wok over high heat, along with your ginger and shallots. Stir fry for 2 minutes, then add your beef and stir fry for 5 minutes until just browned. 
4. Remove to a bowl, add remaining oil to the wok along with a pinch of salt and the broccoli. Cook for 2 minutes then return the beef mix to the pan along with the water chestnuts and seasoning sauce.
5. Stir until mixed and warmed through then serve on a bowl of rice or noodles.

Not your average pancake

Shortly after completing high school I spent an extended period of time in Japan as an exchange student. While it had its challenges, one of the things I learnt to love about Japan was its food, and especially the street and festival food. Some people may balk at the thought of octopus balls, or cabbage pancake, but if you can open your mind you'll find they are truly delicious.

A number of years back, I was perusing the aisle of an Asian supermarket when I stumbled upon Okonomiyaki sauce. For those who don't know what it is, Okonomiyaki is a savoury pancake traditionally made with meat, shrimp, and cabbage to bulk it out. But Okonomiyaki literally translates to "cooked things you like". Like I said, Okonomiyaki is one of the great street foods of Japan and, finding a bottle of the sauce, I decided I'd have a crack at making some for myself. I experimented and varied the recipe a little over time, but I've got it down to what I think is a pretty good dinner pancake. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Okonomiyaki

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs, lightly beaten

500 ml dashi*

2 cups savoy cabbage, finely shredded

2 shallots, finely chopped

300g chicken or pork mince**

Salt and pepper to taste

Okonomiyaki sauce

Japanese mayonnaise

Method

1. Heat a non-stick frypan over a high heat, add a splash of oil and cook your mince, breaking it up as you go. Set aside to cool.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl, then season with the salt and pepper. Add the eggs and dashi, whisk until a smooth batter has formed, and fold in the shallots, mince, and cabbage.
3. Place your non-stick frypan on a medium-high heat and add a little oil. I'll usually only use 1/2 to 1 tsp. Once the frypan has come to temperature, ladle in around 1/3 cup of the batter and spread until the pancake is about 1cm thick.
4. Cook for around 4 minutes on each side, then transfer to a plate in a low temperature oven to keep warm. Repeat for the rest of the pancakes.
5. To serve, cross-hatch the pancake with okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. If you want to go all out, top with some bonito flakes and shredded nori seaweed.

Notes

*Dashi is a Japanese stock made from bonito and kelp and has a uniquely Japanese flavour. The easiest way to get dashi nowadays is to use powdered or granulated dashi. For those of you in Australia, I get powdered dashi from the Asian foods aisle at my local Coles supermarket. It should be labelled as dashi or bonito soup stock. A 5g sachet is enough to dissolve into 500ml of hot water. 

If you can't find dashi, water will work just as well. Likewise, Coles usually stock Kewpie brand mayonnaise in the same aisle.

Okonomiyaki sauce can be more difficult to come across, and I've only ever found it in one or two specialty Asian supermarkets. If you find it, remember where you got it from, because you'll definitely need to go back to buy more of this delicious sauce when you run out. If you can't find it, you can substitute Tonkatsu sauce, or failing that, mix 3 parts BBQ sauce with 1 part Worcestershire sauce.

**Okonomiyaki translates as "things you like, cooked" so feel free to add other ingredients as you like. It's a great way to use up left-over meat, and once you've got the base ingredients in the pantry it's super cheap to make. I decided to make Okonomiyaki this week as I had left-over cabbage and BBQ chicken after having Chicken with Summer Slaw the other night.

Sergeant Slaw-ter

What-ho, interwebs! It's been a long time between drinks, figuratively speaking ;-), but I yet live and continue on my regular culinary adventures and mis-adventures. I've not published here for a while because, to be honest, nothing I was cooking was so uniquely out there that I couldn't remember what I'd tweaked by looking at the original recipe I'd worked from. But I do now have a recipe which was put together from my own thoughts and experimentation that I'd like to share.

Now, I'll let you in on a little secret. I've never liked coleslaw. It's just not been a thing that I did. But a couple of weeks ago we were hosting our first BBQ of the season, where we invite a bunch of friends over with the idea that they bring some meat for themselves, and we'll provide snacks and sides. Not wanting to redo the standard everyday garden salad, I started hunting for alternative ideas. Now like I said, I've never liked coleslaw, but after seeing recipes for a couple of alternative coleslaws I thought "What if I make a coleslaw with flavours that I like?" and so I set about looking at various coleslaw recipes for options. In the end, this is what I came up with. I like it, I hope you do, too.

Slats' Summer Slaw

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

2 cups red cabbage, finely sliced

2 cups savoy cabbage, finely sliced

1 Granny Smith apple, cut into matchsticks

1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks

2 tbs extra-light sour cream

1 tbs horseradish cream

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

Method

1. Slice the apple, cabbages, and carrot. Combine in a bowl.
2. Add the vinegar, and toss well.
3. In a small bowl, or jug, combine the sour cream and horseradish cream and mix well with a fork. Add to the salad and toss until evenly coated.

Serve as a side to a BBQ chicken or some tasty pork ribs, along with some chargrilled corn on the cob!

Note: I found it only took about 1/8 of each type of cabbage to get enough to make this slaw, but the smallest I've seen at the local fruit market is by the quarter. 

If you're looking to make the most of your food stocks, take the remaining savoy cabbage and about 300g of leftover BBQ chicken and make yourself some Okonomiyaki (Japanese Cabbage Pancakes) for another meal later in the week. That's another recipe I'll have to pop up here. 

I'd also look at braising the remaining red cabbage as a side dish for Bangers and Mash.