Recipe : Baked Brie with Caramelised Almonds (Vegetarian)

Brie is a soft French Cheese made from cow's milk. It has a harder rind on the outside which protects a soft cheese on the inside. The flavour is normally mild and not too ripe. A ripened Brie is called a Brie Noir.

Brie can be eaten as it is or baked to make it a little more gooey and runny. The rind is completely edible and best left as is (with a little hole cut out to breathe), if you plan to bake it. the rind will help keep your Brie in shape.

Brie is sold in circular shapes or triangular wedges. The circles work best for this recipe. If all you have access to is the triangular variety, then make sure that it has rind on the sides before baking it, else you'll just end up with an extremely limp quesadilla.

While I have used almonds in my recipe. All nuts work well and so do some fruits like cranberries when baking Brie.

This dish looks very fancy, but its very easy and fast to prepare, if you have all the ingredients in your pantry.

Ingredients:
1 small round of Brie (4.5" is the commonly available size in India).
1 tsp butter (salted is fine)
2-3 tbsp brown sugar (it gives better flavour, but if you are out of brown sugar, you can try regular sugar too, just try and brown it when caramelising)
1.5 handfuls of nuts (I used almonds, you can use walnuts or pecans)
pinch of salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp chilli powder

Special equipment :
Aluminium Foil
Oven proof small round baking dish

Method :
Bring the Brie to room temperature.

In a normal frying pan (preferably non-stick), melt the butter on a low flame.
Add half the sugar, salt, chilli powder and nuts and continue to swirl them around the pan occasionally on a low flame.
When all the ingredients (except the nuts) combine to form a sticky paste, take it off the flame and transfer the nuts onto  the aluminium foil.

Preheat your over to 180C.

Thinly slice off the top rind of the Brie, but leave the sides and bottom intact.
Place it in the oven proof bowl sliced side top.
Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on the sliced side and then top with the caramelised nuts.
(I sprinkled the remaining nuts around the Brie too)

Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes - until you see the soft cheese bubbling and changing consistency.

Let it rest for a few minutes and then serve hot with sliced Baguettes or crackers.

This can be served as a fancy appetiser, on a cheeseboard or as a snack for 2.

Kim's Notes:
Its important to move the hot caramelised nuts out of the pan and onto the foil to prevent sticking to your pan.

Also, don't move the nuts directly onto the Brie, it will start melting on top and your cooking won't be even.

If like me, you have been taught not to waste any food in the kitchen, then slip the sliced bits under the brie when baking or keep them and use them in any pasta sauce.

Standard Brie Size is 9-15 inches, so double the recipe for a Standard serving of Brie.

Recipe : Roast Chicken with Duxelles

If you cook this right, the meat will be incredibly soft, tender and juicy. Don't pull out the chicken skin before roasting. It helps keep the meat moist, the stuffing in and adds a lovely texture and flavour to the dish.

Since I roast chicken in the microwave on convection setting, I've found that roasting it covered for 2/3 of the time helps keep most of the moisture in.

Ingredients:
1 roasting chicken with skin - around 1kg
1 quantity duxelles (from 400gm mushrooms) at room temperature
1 tsp salt
juice of 1 lime
a little butter or olive oil for basting.

Method:
Clean the chicken well, especially the inside and dry
Rub the chicken with a mixture of lemon juice and salt, both inside and outside and keep for 10-15 minutes.
Stuff the chicken with the duxelles and if you can get the skin loose, pack some duxelles between the skin and the flesh.
(My butcher here in Ahmedabad, ends up tearing the skin when he de-feathers the chicken and unless I clean my chicken myself, I have to make do with what I'm given)

Baste the chicken with a little melted butter or olive oil.
Roast in a preheated oven at 200C for about an hour and a half.
Keep an eye on the chicken as it roasts and increase or decrease the time as needed.

You can serve your chicken completely coked but moist, or slightly crispy.

I've made this a home style roast chicken, but you can obviously make this a much neater dish, by trussing the chicken once stuffed.

If you are roasting it uncovered in a regular oven, you can cover the wings and the final leg joint with foil until half cooked, to get an even colouring all over.

Recipe : Duxelles - Vegetarian / Vegan - Stuffing / Pate

I first heard about Duxelles on the first season of Junior Masterchef Australia, and the concept of  minced mushrooms cooked in butter seemed so tasty that I had to look it up and try it for myself.

There are a multitude of recipes for Duxelles online, but I took a look at ingredients that were easily available to me and what would suit our tastebuds and this is the final recipe that I came up with.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
6 - 8 cloves garlic
400gms fresh button mushrooms (the kind most easily available in India)
2 pinches of herbs of your choice - thyme, parsley, tarragon
3 tbsp butter (vegans can use olive oil)
1/2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

Method:
Finely mince the onions, garlic and mushrooms (separately)
In a pan, heat the butter with the oil (the oil will prevent the butter from burning)
Fry garlic till slightly soft, then add onions and fry till completely soft.
Fry on a low heat, so everything cooks without turning brown.
Add mushrooms, when mushrooms are half cooked, add the herbs.

Keep cooking on a low flame until the mixture turns into a spreadable paste.
Now adjust salt.

Use it as a spread on toast or for stuffing chicken, beef wellington, puff pastry or savoury tarts.

Kim's tips:
The trick to cooking duxelles is to keep the fire low and stir constantly, so that everything cooks into a paste, rather than crisping up.

Its critical to wait until the end to adjust the salt, because the mixture really shrinks in quantity and the flavours get very intense. If you salt it at the beginning, you will very likely end up with an over-salty duxelles.

If you plan to use the duxelles as a stuffing, don't scrimp on the butter, it will be needed to keep the meat moist.

Duxelles keeps well in the fridge for at least a week. Reheat  and stir well before using.

Recipe: Healthily Twisted Fish Meunière

A friend who came over for lunch today is currently eating extremely healthily and running marathons, so I planned a light healthy summery menu : A healthy twist on the Fish Meuniere, Roasted Chicken with Duxelles Stuffing, Pasta in a Chargrilled Red Pepper Sauce and Stir Fried Sesame Veggies. Dessert was freshly cut chilled Mangoes. The Badamis that I found in the market were quite tasty and sweet (or so the hubby said - I'm not a fruit person & I only eat raw mangoes not ripe ones)

The fish that I cooked today was a mix of inspirations from a classic Meuniere (Fish dredged in flour and fried - served with a butter, lemon and parsley sauce - French Origin - Meunière=Millers Wife) and a Gremolata (Parsley + Garlic + Lemon - Italian/Milanese in origin) I did change the entire methodology of these classics, but the inspiration came from both these flavour combinations and it worked very well.

Its quick to prep and also to cook. If you use frozen fish, it will take a little longer to cook, because the fish will let out water, but exercise a little patience, it will be worth it.

Ingredients:
750 gms of Firm White Fish - I used Basa Fillets - Clean & Dry

1 tsp olive oil (since Basa is a non fatty fish)
Zest and juice of 2 small limes (Indian limes are really tiny - smaller than a table tennis ball - so adjust to taste)
handful of parsely leaves - chopped fine
5-6 garlic cloves - chopped fine (I didn't chop mine too fine, because we like the taste of fried garlic)
salt to taste
a dash of freshly ground pepper - to season

Method:
Lightly pound together the parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.
Make an emulsion with the olive oil, lemon juice and grated zest

Marinate the fish in this (I left it overnight, but 15-30 minutes should be good too)

Fry gently on both sides in a hot pan and serve hot.
There is no need to add any oil in the pan, since there is oil in the marinade.
How long you fry each side depends on the thickness of your fish slices.
Watch the colour and texture of the fish in the pan - it is the best indication of  whether it is ready to be served or not.

I served this as an appetiser today and so I cut the fish into smaller pieces. You can slice a fillet in half and serve it as a main course too.

Kim's tips:
If you want to serve a sauce with the fish - add a little butter to the pan you fried the fish in, just before it turns brown, add some parsley and lemon juice and take it off the fire. Serve as a dressing with the fish.

Next Time I make this, I'm going to add some capers to the marinade too. I think the sharp salty flavours of capers will go excellently with this dish.

And this is what today's lunch looked like.

Pasta in a chargrilled red pepper sauce
Roasted Chicken with Duxelle stuffing
Healthily twisted fish meuniere
Stir fried sesame veggies