Taro Yong Tofu (Tofu stuffed with Taro paste)

I ate something similar to this at Baba Laksa House in the Grace Hotel a few months ago. This is my take on the recipe for a taro yong tofu (stuffed tofu). Normally, restaurants will use a fish paste to stuff the tofu so here's a vegetarian version. I've tried to make a sauce for this from things I had along the way. To start, I washed some rice but kept the rinsing water for cooking the taro later. Steam the rice while you are doing the rest.

• 250g taro
• 1 packet of firm tofu (if you are in Sydney, Nhu Quynh made in Yagoona is a good option)
• 4 stalks of spring onions
• Nob of ginger
• 6-8 rehydrated shitake mushrooms (soaked for 1 hour in boiling water, reserve the water)
• 1 chilli
  
• soy sauce
• salt
  

Grate 3/4 of the ginger and fry with the chopped up spring onions and a pinch of salt. Once cooked, set aside in a medium-sized bowl.

Peel and cube the taro. Fry for a couple of minutes in a medium saucepan with the remaining ginger that has been smashed under a chopping knife. Pour in the water that you rinsed the rice with so that the taro is well covered. If there isn't enough, add a bit more water. Add the shitake mushrooms that have been diced and the finely chopped chilli. Cook until tender, which should take about 10 minutes. Towards the end, save 6-8 tablespoons of the thickened water to form the basis of a sauce later. If there is still any left over liquid, strain the taro and then mix the taro with the fried ginger and spring onions that you reserved earlier. Mash up the taro to form a paste. Add more salt to taste.



Cut the tofu so that it is in two layers. Then cut into squares. Sandwich the tofu in between two layers of tofu. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side until brown. Then take the reserved taro water, add some of the water used to soak the shitake mushrooms to thin it down and add a splash of soya sauce. Poor the sauce on top of the fried stuffed tofu and cook for a minute or two on a high heat. As a variation, you could use two different types of tofu. An egg tofu or silken tofu might be a nice contrast.

Serve the taro yong tofu on steamed rice.

June Brunch

To celebrate the start of Winter, it was time to have a brunch. I've been meaning to try Crepe Suzette for a while now. For crepes, I always use a modified version of James Peterson's recipe from "Essentials of Cooking":

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups soy milk (Bonsoy if you have it)
• pinch of salt
• 100 - 150g butter
  

Put the flour, eggs and salt in a bowl and gradually combine together with a fork or whisk, then keep mixing while gradually adding the soy milk in batches. Don't skimp on the soy milk as the mixture should end up the consistency of heavy cream. Brown the butter in a frypan and incorporate into the mixture at the end for a tasty healthy-heart batter.

Cook all the crepes first. The mixture above is supposed to make 16 10" crepes. Maybe James has a different measure for 10" as I've never got 16 out of a batch. Then follow the instructions in the link above to make the orange sauce for the crepe suzette, cook them together while dousing each crepe as you add it to the pan to get a nice sticky rich sauce. Yum!



I tried creating a new dessert I call "gedamisu", which translates roughly to Ged Me Up! I took 2 hachiya persimmon (the soft ones) and blended up the pulp. Don't be too conscientious to get all the pulp off the skin. If you scrape too much, you'll get the stuff that makes your tongue go funny from just under the skin. In a saucepan, heat 150g of coconut cream with 75g sugar. Add the coconut cream to the persimmon pulp after it has cooled a little. You could add some finely diced fuyu persimmon for texture and maybe a little gelatin to help the pulp set. I didn't try the gelatin so can't guarantee if that is a good idea. Put the pulp mixture at the bottom of some wine or cocktail glasses.



Then I made a mascapone mixture from a tiramisu recipe (250g mascapone, 100g sugar, 4 eggs) and add that on top of the pulp. Refrigerate overnight and serve topped with fruit. I used dragon fruit for some colour but there is something strange about having tropical fruit in Winter.

Cooking Catch-up

Here's a small selection of stuff in my cooking backlog. Let's see if I can keep more up-to-date from now on...

Coca de Recapte - Catalan Flatbread

Well! This is my first post in a LONG time. It's not that I haven't been cooking, just too disorganised to blog. Maybe I'll upload some photos to prove this. Today's dish is a catalan flatbread that I made with the help of Mr and Mrs Barcelona, who could also verify its authenticity.

The recipe for the coca de recapte dough came from Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish's "Rustica" with some minor clarifications and my ever perceptive notes. :-) The ingredients for the flatbread are:

• 500g plain flour - no need for fancy flour as catalan peasants would never have used 00 flour
  
• 1 packet dried yeast, 7g
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2-1 teaspoon sea salt
• 330ml lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
  

Put the yeast into the lukewarm water, dissolve then mix in the sugar, salt and olive oil. Cover and set aside in a warm place for half an hour. Don't be tempted to add more yeast like I was as you are making a flatbread, not a focaccia... Combine the flour and the wet ingredients in a bowl using a fork and once it has come together, tip out onto a clean bench. Knead by hand for 10 minutes until smooth. Although you could be a big namby-pamby and use a mixer with a dough hook, kneading let's you release some frustration and is good for the soul, so do it by hand! The dough is a little wet but not so sticky that you need to flour the bench. After the initial kneading, let it rest covered for 5-10 minutes and then knead for another 5 minutes. Cover and rest another 30 minutes and then it's ready to go. Divide into 6 portions, roll out into "tongues" and let them sit for a while on oiled baking paper that's been given a good sprinkle of polenta. The polenta gives the bottom of the flatbread a nice crunch and also prevents sticking. If the dough rises after 10 minutes, flatten it out a bit more as you want it fairly thin so that it bakes crisp. You might like to poke the tongues with a fork before loading the topping so that it doesn't puff up while cooking.

In between kneading the dough, prepare the toppings. You can use pretty much anything but it's nice to caramelise some onions and cook with thinly sliced garlic, a little chilli and bay leaves in a frypan with a pinch of salt. Make sure you add some of Mr Barcelona's signature herb: thyme. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. Other toppings might be best roasted with salt, pepper and olive oil.



Whatever you choose for your toppings, don't overload the tongues. Sometime less is more. Cook in a preheated oven at 220C for 15 minutes until nicely browned. Drizzle with a good olive oil and top with some torn parsley. In Barcelona, they serve coca de recapte cold but I think they are best eaten straight from the oven or at least while they are still warm. Here are some alternative toppings, although the list is endless:

• za'atar and labneh
• mushroom, garlic and nutmeg
• thinly sliced potato with rosemary and sea salt (some caramelised onions would also be nice)
  
• roast capsicum, eggplant and tomato
• tomato, torn zucchini flowers and ricotta (add the flowers after cooking)
• roasted kumera, cumin seed and pesto