Tassie Mussels on butter sauce, Chilli Mud Crab and another great summer dinner

We usually enjoy our Saturday nights cooking with friends and this hot weekend was no different. Except that we actually cooked something a bit out of the ordinary.

Four hungry birds craving for some fresh seafood. The boys headed to the markets in the afternoon and decided on Australian mud crabs which looked extremely fresh, meaty and not as pricie as usual. After all, mud crabs are in season.

We then washed the live crustaceans and put them to sleep in the freezer for about one hour before cooking. If you’ve never heard of it, this is the most humane way of killing crabs.

A bit of deliberation on the sauce then we all headed to the kitchen.

For a starter, we steamed some fresh Tasmanian mussels and tossed it with a beautiful butter sauce. It was divine for a recipe that we came up wit in the last minute. Nothing less than the most juicy and flavorsome mussels that I’ve tried in Australia.

By now we are all fighting for the last mussel in the bowl and coming to the conclusion that we either needed more mussels (which in reality we don’t have) or we MUST start on the crab ASAP.

Back to the kitchen, we put the crabs in a big stock pot with boiling water and left them cooking for approx 12 to 15 minutes after the water returned to a boil.

Once ready, the crabs were cleaned, broken in the middle and cooked for another 3 to 5 minutes into the chilli sauce.

That was spot on! The only thing to actually break our silent were all the cracks of the claws and a bit of laugh here and there.

It was obviously a bit messy and not the most finesse dinner that we put together but you have to agree that getting your hands dirty is actually the proper way of eating crabs!

We completely forgot about the finger bowl so the big question was: “who is actually going to stop and take some photos right now?” Not lots of candidates really.

Chilli Crabs:

2 mud crabs (approx 1.2 Kg each)
4 large tomatoes chopped
200 ml fish stock
2-3 cm piece ginger, julienned
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies, halved & seeds removed
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 bunch coriander, chopped
2 tbsp sesame oil

Method

Wash the live crabs and put them to sleep in the freezer for about one hour before cooking.

Take the crabs out of the freezer and put them straight into a big stock pot with boiling water. Left them cooking for approx 12 to 15 minutes after the water returns to a boil.

Remove the crabs from water and chop them is halves, removing lungs and crack the claws by hitting them across the middle with a knife.

Heat sesame oil in a very large fry pan or a wok until smoking.
Add onion and cook till almost translucent, add garlic, tomatoes and cook it for a few minutes. Add the fish stock and heat it up.
Add ginger, chillies and stir for a few minutes.

Place the crabs in the fry pan, toss it and cook for another 3 – 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with coriander and serve it.

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Butter Sauce for the Mussels:

In a shallow fry pan, fry 3 cloves of chopped garlic on 3 tbsp of melted butter. Mix white wine and a pinch of salt. Add some chopped coriander for garnish and toss the steamed mussels with it.

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Focaccia da Nonna – recipe revealed

Every culture has a different excuse for not sharing recipes: some want to keep the secret and tradition within their families, others like to be known for having something very unique about themselves (like Aunt Mary’s banana cake) , some put so much effort on nailing a dish that others will have to suffer until they deserve that knowledge. There are even the ones that never write recipes…

When comes to sharing recipes, it is ridiculous the countless stories that you hear and I know that this is even topic of some books out there:

Mum tells me that my grand-grandmother used to trick her recipes and leave out some key ingredients so people would never be able to recreate her dishes. When they would come to her to check on what went wrong, she would say something like: “weird…never happened to me. Maybe try something else next time”. Surprisingly they would never come back again.

My friend’s Nonna is getting old and apparently no one in the family can replicate her delicious dishes. She is now at an age where she forgets things and she never liked teaching others how to cook…What a shame!

I know a Middle Eastern / European guy that put together a website where both sides of the family could share their traditional recipes. Half of the women refuses to use the site and felt offended by the idea.

What about home cooks who make friends sign contracts so they don’t pass recipe forward? This is insane!

I have no doubts that information is power but let’s be honest: unless you have any business intention with your recipes, then what is the matter with you people?

Reality is, if you don’t share your recipe, sooner or later Google will do it on your behalf!

Nonna’s Foccacia

My childhood best friend Maria comes from a second generation of an Italian family in Brazil.
I grew up trying a lot of her mum’s fantastic food and now 20+ years later I started craving for some sort of “Italian bread” that I had numerous time while playing in her house.

This post is dedicated to Maria Helena’s mum, Elena Maria, who after years of no contact, didn’t hesitated to give me a copy of her hand written recipe.

And yes, it did turn out as beautiful as the ones that she used to make for me.

Ingredients

500 g  all-purpose white flour (or Tipo ’00′ flour)
25 g melted butter
1/2 Kg potatoes, boiled and mashed
30 g active (fresh) yeast
1/2 egg
2 tbsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cup milk
a handful of all-purpose white flour (or Tipo ’00′ flour)
1 Kg tomatoes, chopped and seeds removed
4-6 garlic cloves finely chopped
dried oregano
grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Yeast preparation

Mix active yeast, sugar and a handful of Tipo 00 flour in a large bowl.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Dough

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl.
Make a well in the center and add the egg, melted butter, some salt and the yeast into it.
Add the mashed potato and knead it using your hands until obtain a smooth and elastic dough.

Sprinkle some flour on the dough, cover it with a tea towel and leave it rise for approx 1 hour.

Topping

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan and gently cook the garlic until softened.
Add the tomatoes, sprinkle some dried oregano and simmer it for a few minutes.

Assemble

Divide dough into 3 pieces.
Grease your hands with olive oil.
In a lightly greased baking tray, pat the dough into 1 inch thick circle.
Cover the dough with the tomato topping, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, dried oregano e a drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle it with more chopped garlic if you wish.

Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for approx 1 hour, or until the bottom is golden brown.
Repeat the process with the other 2 pieces of the dough.
Serve it warm.

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Bolo de Rolo

Guava roll cake (Bolo de Rolo) is a typical Brazilian delicacy from Pernambuco, a beautiful State in the Northeast Coast of Brazil.
It is an artisan cake made of very thin layers of a buttery batter rolled into thin layers of guava paste.

Tourists never leave Pernambuco without taking some Bolo de Rolo home as a souvenir and it is part of the fun the search for the place that sells the most authentic cake, the thinnest layered cake, the one with the highest number of layers, local’s favourite and so on.

The cake is served in fine slices, which balances well the sweetness of a single portion.

It has been in my “must do” list for a while and after a crazy week at work, It was about time to enjoy myself in a sort of craft work in the kitchen. The idea was already making me salivate so I decided to give it a go.

Mariano had some things lined up for the day but he couldn’t resist the sweetness perfume around the house so he decided to stick around and watch me in my first attempt of making Bolo de Rolo.

I got so excited in this food therapy that the outcome was nothing less than a delicious 6 layers cake, crafted very gently in fun and relaxing afternoon.

Bolo de Rolo

Ingredients

250 g sugar
250 g butter
250 g all purpose flour
5 eggs, separated
water
200 g guava paste
white sugar for sprinkling

Filling

Slice the guava paste in small cubes and microwave it for about a minute or until it melts. Let it cool down.

Batter

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease a shallow squared baking tray with the butter and flour.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and butter until incorporated.
Gradually add the eggs yolks into the mixture.
Add the flour and keep folding it until you have a light batter.
Beat egg whites in a mixer or a whisk until soft peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.

Method

Spread a thin layer of the batter into the baking tray.
Bake for approximately 4 or 5 minutes. Use your fingers to touch the cake and ensure that it is dry and soft so you can roll it easily.
Place the baked cake in a wet kitchen towel.
Spread a thin layer of guava paste and roll it up quickly, with the help of the towel.
Bake another layer of the batter, spread the guava paste and start rolling it where the previous layer ended.
Repeat the same process until the last layer.
Sprinkle white sugar on top of the cake.

Slice it thinly and gently.

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