Savoury Pancakes – Just as Good as the Sweet??

I put the kernels off a leftover cooked corn on the cob into a bowl.  Then some chopped red onion, a little chopped tomato and ½ a green chilli (finely diced).

For spices I put in a little chilli powder, grated ginger, salt and cumin seeds.

Then I added 1 cup of plain flour plus a teensy bit of baking soda (say 1/8^th of a teaspoon).

I mixed this all up and then gradually added 1 cup of ice cold water – don't add it all at once and stop when the mixture is milkshake consistency and there are no lumps.

Rest the pancake mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes or so.

Heat some oil until hot, then spoon in the mixture in batches – the first 2 lots I did were too large and as a result I couldn't turn them over without breaking them.  I did get one ok – and that is the one in the pic, of course!

They were tasty – spicy without being overwhelmingly so – particularly the crispy edges.

Prawns wrapped in Bacon with chilli butter

I caught this on Food Network being done by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.  I decided to try it out to see if it would make a good platter to take to a neighbourhood knees up.  Small number of ingredients but big on visual appeal and flavour

Ingredients:

Frozen large cooked prawns (tail on)

Thin bacon (streaky)

Butter

Chilli powder

Spring onion (scallion)

Method:

Ree used raw prawns – I couldn't find any I liked the look of, so went for the frozen ones.  I left the tails on but will remove them for the party.

Thaw and pat dry your prawns.

Wrap each prawn with a third of a rasher of bacon and secure with a toothpick or little skewer.  I tried both and think I'll use toothpicks for the party (but will soak them in water first). Put your prawns onto a rack in an oven dish.

Melt a lot of butter – say 4 tablespoons for 12 prawns and then put in a tablespoon of chilli powder.

Brush half of the chilli butter over the bacon before putting the prawns into a hot fan oven.  They took about 15 minutes to brown nicely.

Brush the other half of the chilli butter over the prawns just before serving.  I suggest you do this in the oven dish rather than on the serving plate.  You don't want chilli butter dripping everywhere!

Shake and transfer to your serving plate and scatter spring onions over the top.  You could use any green herb – it's just for garnish.

I was worried these might be too spicy but in fact they were just right.

Pork, Bok Choy and Chilli with Sichuan Pepper and New Blog of the Month

You may be relieved to know that this Sunday's dish is not Japanese – but it is Chinese inspired.

Ingredients:

Pork mince

Bok Choy

1 tsp sugar

1 ½ tblsp soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp Chinese cooking wine

1 tsp Chinese black vinegar

Fresh ginger – grated

Oil for frying

1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)

2 tsp Chinese chilli paste

½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns, freshly ground

Method:

Mix together the pork, sugar, half the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and black vinegar as well as half the ginger and leave steeping in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Heat up your pan/wok and put the vegetable oil in.  Fry the pork (in batches if you've got a lot) until it is well browned and beginning to crisp up.

Add the rest of the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine and vinegar along with the cornflour (mixed with a little cold water) and bok choy. 

Cook until the bok choy leaves have wilted but the stalks are still a bit crunchy.

Take off the heat, add the remining ginger and the chilli paste and Sichuan pepper – if you are not used to these spices add just a little bit to start with.  You can always add more.  Taste and then add a drop more soy sauce and sesame oil if you think it needs it.

Serve straight away

Now onto October's Blog of the Month.  Kath runs this month's Blog of the Month – In The Kitchen With Kath.  This is a very interesting food blog with a wide range of recipes. Kath is much better than I am at taking pics of the different stages of creating her dishes.  Recipes I have enjoyed include: Roasted Shrimp Cocktail, Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower and Simple Salmon Chirashi

Symphony in Red & Green – A Simple Composed Salad

                     

Sorry about the rather pretentious name – Symphony in Red & Green!  But I was rather pleased by how this simple composed salad turned out.  I am a firm believer that food that is pretty tastes better.

So this was so simple there really isn't a recipe – just red and green salad vegetables laid out on a plate with salt and pepper and a drizzle of lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

As you can tell from the photo, there were cucumber slices round the outside and inside the plate, then a row of cherry tomatoes, then red bell pepper (capsicum) and finally a whole avocado roughly scooped into the middle with red chilli slices on top.

Need Some Inspiration? Try Chillies!

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Jalapeno Poppers

Food on Friday: Chillies was a true celebration of cheese.  Thanks to all. To see all the delightful dishes at a glance I suggest you head over to this Pinboard. I have selected a few to inspire you today.

The pic at the top is from Cooking With Carlee – Bacon Wrapped Shrimp Jalapeno Poppers

Blooming Onion with Hatch Chile and Cheese by MJs Kitchen

Spicy Vegetables with Bulgar Wheat by Ivy, Phyllis and Me!

Homemade Taco Seasoning by Jenn's Random Scraps