Pappardelle with Duck Ragu

This months edition of SBS Feast, the foodie magazine by SBS, came with a cute little recipe book complete with some amazing looking dishes from the television show Food Safari.

This recipe, by Fred Pizzini, for Duck Ragu was first on my list to try.

It is a time consuming recipe but well worth it. And really its not that difficult.

It all begins with this simple duck stock, simmer away the duck bones, onion, celery, carrot, star anise and fresh herbs for about an hour.

The fragrance of this stock is incredible.

The tomatoes are prepared by dicing (you are supposed to peel and seed as well but i guess i'm too lazy, and i don't like all the waste - although our worms wouldn't have been complaining!) then tossing in lemon juice and sugar allowing the juices to drain.

The base of the ragu is onion and garlic which are softened until beginning to caramelise.

Add the tomatoes and herbs.

You then add a little stock and tomato juice, season and simmer for about two hours. 

Keep topping up with more stock and juice as required.

The meat from the duck is cut to bite sized pieces and is browned before adding to the ragu for the last half an hour.

The pasta is prepared and cut into two centimetre wide strips. 

I allowed the strips to dry out for about fifteen minutes before cooking for three minutes in a big pot of boiling salted water.

The pasta was then tossed through the rich, thick and moist ragu.

It was sensational, well worth the effort. 

There was a richness and intensity in the sauce, the duck was tender, moist and flavoursome, and the papperdelle, well it was amazing. So silky, soft and tasty. 

My sister-in-law said it was the best pasta she has ever eaten.

Ginger Biscuits filled with Lemon, Ginger and White Pepper Buttercream

In the most recent edition of SBS Feast magazine is this lovely recipe by Matthew Evans for Ginger Creams. My parents were visiting and so I had the perfect excuse to bake this indulgent snack.

Yes the main ingredient is butter, 200g, beaten with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg until pale and fluffy.

Combine the sifted flours (200g plain flour and 50g cornflour) with the butter and roll into balls.

Press down with two fingers and bake for 15 minutes at 180C.

Allow to firm up in the tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Prepare the buttercream by beating 50g butter with 100g icing sugar. 

Then beat in 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper and 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Join your biscuits together and enjoy! 

The white pepper in the icing actually works really well, it just brings out the ginger flavour.

Calamari stuffed with tomato and herb rice

My daughters plate she 'styled'!

I am so surprised how simple this dish is! 

Its another from Gordon Ramsay's book, World Kitchen.

The stuffing is prepared by gently cooking garlic and onion, letting some white wine reduce down then add rice, tomato, a little sugar and seasoning.

Add water and simmer covered until the water is absorbed and the rice is fluffy.

Meanwhile prepare the calamari. 

You can see my husband and daughter did a fabulous job!

The rice is allowed to cool, then I added in some peas, mint and parsley.

Carefully fill the calamari and place in a greased dish.

Top with the remaining rice and tentacles, add a little water and bake for half an hour.

It tasted like a really special dish yet did not cost much and was simple to prepare.

Chai Smoked Duck Breast on Soba Noodle Salad

You will not be surprised to read that this is yet another recipe of Anna Gare's.

My smoking technique was not done as Anna describes in the recipe and I suggest you don't follow my method! 

I did not have wood chips or a smoker, instead I heated up this gorgeous mix of chai tea, sugar and rice in our baby weber Q.

It certainly produced some lovely smoke but our bbq doesn't seal so our duck did not really retain that smoky flavour. I would love to buy a smoker and have a real crack at it.

After smoking the fat was rendered down and the duck breast finished in the oven.

Served with the salad of soba noodles, fresh enoki and shitake mushrooms, capsicum, spring onion, snow peas, basil and coriander.

The dressing consisted of mirin, rice wine, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, soy and sweet soy.

The whole dish is then drizzled with some pomegranate molasses.

It was certainly beautiful in taste and looks.

Honeyed Pear and Macadamia Tart

This is a really simple delicious tart recipe. 

It requires no pastry and is easy to assemble.

It is yet another of the amazing Anna Gare's recipes.

The pears are cut into even chunky slices and assembled on top of butter, honey and lime zest.

A few macadamias are sprinkled around before spooning over the tart base.

The base is a delicious mix of pureed macadamias, butter, sugar, a little flour, egg and lime zest.

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until very golden and let rest for about 20 minutes before turning it upside down and carefully removing the foil.

I was actually surprised at how tasty this tart was.

 The honey really came through with the juicy pears and the crunchy macadamias, it was good!

Jaffna Goat Curry - My Sri Lanka

This recipe of Peter Kurivita's for Jaffna Goat Curry was another from his show on SBS My Sri Lanka.

I have eaten goat but never attempted to cook it before. And since I loved other recipes from My Sri Lanka (pork curry, cashew nut curry and prawns with black pepper sauce) I knew I had to try it.

Fortunately I live in an area in Sydney where Sri Lankan ingredients are easily come by, and that includes goat! In fact goat brains, tripe, liver.....

The spices are prepared and mixed with the meat along with tomato paste and coconut milk.

Then the aromats. I tried this technique Peter shared of making garlic paste with salt. He made it look very easy and although I was pleased with the result it was nothing on Peter's effort!

The garlic, ginger, onion, green chilli, pandan, curry leaves and lemon grass are all fried initially in some oil until the onion is translucent and the aroma incredible.

Then in goes the meat and its sauce along with water.

Now this is where my problems started. The recipe says to cook for 30 minutes or until gravy thickens and meat tender. Well the gravy thickened beautifully and I tested a piece of meat, it seemed quite tender. But when we served it most of the meat was quite tough. 

I am assuming that the cut of meat I used was not right. Anyway I tried using the same cut again 'goat curry on bone' and it took two hours to become tender adding extra water at intervals.

But the sauce was incredible. Oh my goodness it tasted like a real curry!

Served with some string hoppers made at our local Sri Lankan takeaway, it was amazing.

The goat flavour wise was fantastic, suited the sauce perfectly, but mastering the cooking time is an issue.

Next time I'll probably just use lamb!