How to sharpen a Wushtof panini knife / super slicer / scallop edged knife

I'm not sure if I have ever mentioned, but I love my knives. I'm a huge fan of having a really good knife for the purpose that it was designed to be used in order to maximize your cutting experience.

I have a rather large collection of knives, though I do not think it is excessive. A 6-piece set of Global knives, some Wushtoff knives, The Boy has his favorite 3-piece set of Henckel knives and most recently added to the collection some Ken Onion "Rain" knives.

Out of all the knives I have, the most specialized knife I own is my Wushtoff Panini knife. This is a scallop edged knife, sort of like a reverse serrated edged knife.

I bought this knife from Eversharp Knives in Minesotta when we visited the US about 3 years ago.

This knife is perfect for slicing slightly frozen meat, hard meats like salami and pepperoni, and even hard cheeses. It slices through those suckers like they were butter.

The problem though, that I have with this knife is that it is very hard to sharpen because of the scallop edge. In fact, I went three years without sharpening the knife and fortunately, the knife held it's edge and I was able to continue to use it quite effectively, even though I knew it needed to be sharpened.

We traveled to the US recently for a vacation to visit family and I completely forgot to take my knife with me to get it sharpened at Eversharp.

When we got to Eversharp, I mentioned sharpening the knife to Joe who is the knife sharpening guru there (he sharpens betweenn 150 and 300 knives a day!). Joe recommended a small, thin diamond sharpener to me and demonstrated how I could sharpen the knife myself.

I filmed a short video of the demo so that I would remember it.

I'm so glad that I have this video and the knife sharpener because it means I am now able to sharpen one of my favorite knives and I do love my knives sharp!

If you have a Wushtoff Panini Knife or any other type of scallop edged knife, like the Wushtoff Super Slicer (a long version of the Panini Knife). this is how you sharpen it yourself, if you can't find someone who knows how to sharpen them.

If you do do this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Orange Roughy on a bed of pea and asparagus risotto ... in the Thermomix

I need to start off by saying that I am damned proud of this dish and how it turned out. It was absolutely delicious.

We've recently started having more fish as we've discovered a good fish supplier (almost) locally. It's an hour drive and back to get to them but we get excellent fresh fish and at great prices.

The Boy is always after me to make more fish to add to our diet, but I'm not a big fan of fish in general. I need my fish to be really, really fresh and not smell like fish. Can't stand that fishy smell!

Long story short, we went for a little trip and picked up some fish and Orange Roughy (a fish from New Zealand) was in the mix. The Boy loves Orange Roughy. I asked for two portions but didn't realise that for the Orange Roughy, one portion could feed two people. They came frozen (though I could have asked for them fresh, had I known!) and I just put them straight into the freezer.

The last few times that we have been out, The Boy has ordered fish and it has arrived on a bed of risotto of some sort. I thought that was a great way to serve fish, since we always find that fish on its own just isn't quite satisfying enough as a meal.

We had some friends over to dinner recently and I was at a loss as to what to cook for dinner and The Boy reminded me that we still had the Orange Roughy in the freezer, so I thought I'd serve the fish on a bed of risotto for the mains.

Here's what I did for the fish: (of course, it doesn't have to be Orange Roughy, you can use any fish you like).

Ingredients:

• Orange roughy (or any other type of) fish in single serve portions, as many as needed for number of people serving
• Salt
• Pepper
• Paprika 
• Olive oil

Instructions:

• Heat oven to 200°C
• Prepare baking trays with a sheet of aluminum foil on it. Lightly spray with oil (I use an olive oil spray)
• Place Orange Roughy onto the tray, depending on size of the tray, 2 or 4 to a tray
• Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top of fish
• Sprinkle salt and pepper onto fish for taste
• Dust a light coating of paprika onto fish as well
• Bake in oven, uncovered for 8 - 10 minutes until fish is done
• Serve on a bed of pea and asparagus risotto

For the risotto, originally I thought of making a porcini and truffle risotto but then thought that the porcini and truffle might overpower the flavor of the fish, so went with pea and asparagus instead.

Here's how I made the risotto: (of course, if you don't have a Thermomix, you can make your risotto the traditional way).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of Parmesan, block or shredded
• 1 onion, quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 40g Olive oil
• 300g Arborio rice
• 80g white wine
• 4 tsp chicken stock
• 1 litre of hot water
• 1 cup peas
• 1 bunch asparagus, diced

Instructions:

• If Parmesan is in blocks, put in TM bowl, grind for 10 seconds, speed 7, remove and set aside
• Chop onion and garlic together Speed 6, 3 – 5 seconds, scrape sides
• Add olive oil and sauté at 100 degrees for 2 minutes
• Add Arborio rice and wine wine, sauté for 2 minutes at Reverse speed 1, 100 degrees
• Add stock and hot water, set time to 12 minutes, Reverse speed 1, 100 degrees
• After 12 minutes, peas and asparagus, cook at 100 degrees for 4 minutes, Reverse speed 1
• Remove risotto from TM bowl into a large serving bowl, fold in 2/3 of ground Parmesan, add pepper to taste.
• Serve risotto and sprinkle remaining Parmesan on dish. Enjoy.

A word of advice, timing is everything for this dish. You don't want your fish to be done too early and go cold or get overcooked, so time your risotto and when it is about 8 to 10 minutes from being ready, then pop your fish into the oven.

To serve, I put a generous scoop of the risotto onto the middle of a dinner plate and then placed the fish on top of the risotto. For garnish, I kept it simple and just drizzled a little olive oil over the outer rim of the plate.

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Herby potatoes baked with tomatoes, olives and feta

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the long time between posts. I have no excuse except that life is happening. I'll make an effort to be more regular but I am not making any promises.  Now onto the post ... I hope you like potatoes!

Right now, we have a lot of potatoes in stock. We went to the store for some potatoes about a week ago and instead of our usual 2kg bag which would last us a couple of weeks, we ended up getting a 4kg bag as they were out of the 2kg. That's double what we normally get and we're struggling to get through it.

Last night, I decided that we needed to make a potato dish (instead of just mash as a regular accompaniment to a meal) to use up some potatoes.

I remembered that at one point The Boy went a little potato crazy and thought he would be cooking up a lot of potatoes, so he picked up a few cookbooks on the topic. I went through our collection and found this little treasure and had a quick look through it.

I knew I wanted something with potatoes as the main ingredient, rather than as a side ingredient and found this recipe. It looked and sounded tasty (and let's face it, I liked the pretty picture in the book) and found I had most of the ingredients needs to make it.

Here's the recipe for the potatoes:

Ingredients:

• 675g potatoes
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 red onions, quartered and sliced
• 1 - 2 teaspooons cumin seeds
• 1 - 2 teaspoons chili flakes
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• 12 - 16 black olives
• 115g feta cheese, crumbled
• salt and pepper to taste
• lemon wedges to serve

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 200°C. Cook potatoes in a pot of boiling water for 15 - 20 minutes until just tender. Drain and refresh in cold water. Peel and cut the potatoes into thick slices or bite size wedges.
• Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy pan, add garlic and onions and cook until soft. Add cumin seeds, chili flakes and most of the oregano, and then add sugar, vinegar and tomatoes. Season generously with salt and pepper.
• Put the sliced potatoes and olives into a baking dish and spoon over tomato mixture. Crumble feta cheese generously over the top and sprinkle with remaining oregano. Generously drizzle with olive oil, then bake in oven for 25 - 30 minutes.
• Serve hot, straight from the oven with lemon wedges to squeeze over the potatoes. Serve with a fresh green salad.

I didn't use any butter, but then, I seldom do. When a recipe calls for butter, I often use olive oil instead, which is what I did here.

Instead of boiling the potatoes whole to pre-cook them, I actually sliced them first, because I figured they would be easier to slice raw, rather than boiling hot and soft from cooking. I also didn't peel the potatoes as I find that leaving the skin (thoroughly washed!) on provides some structure to the potatoes and they are less likely to disintegrate.

This dish turned out super yummy and very hearty. It was fantastic as a main dish but I think it would work well as a side dish to a lovely beef or pork roast as well.

I did, however, forget to serve it with a wedge of lemon, but even without the lemon the potatoes were yummy!

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Jazzy baked beans on toast

Lately, The Boy and I have been having brunch instead of breakfast and lunch. It's not entirely intentional but by the time we're done with our coffees, morning errands and are ready to cook, it's about 10am and therefore more brunch than breakfast, though we still call it breakfast. We're finding this works quite well for us and it means we can have a late afternoon snack and then a slightly later dinner.

We were debating what to have for breakfast this morning and originally it was supposed to be waffles with strawberries (The Boy bought some gorgeous fresh strawberries a few days ago!) and bacon. The difficult thing? The bacon was still frozen and we were out of eggs for the waffle batter.

Since we were out of a few things, we decided on a quick run to the grocery store and saw that some Heinz baked beans were on sale. We could get a large size three pack for $2.99! Score! After seeing the baked beans, The Boy decided that he wanted baked beans for breakfast instead.

The thing I love about baked beans is that it is super simple to make. To keep it really basic, I could have just warmed up the baked beans in a pot but we like to jazz up our baked beans a little.

Here's what we did:

Ingredients:

• 1 400g can baked beans
• 2/3 punnet grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 green capsicum, diced
• Handful of ham or prosciutto, diced
• 1 teaspoon chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 1/3 cup water
• 4 slices toast to serve

Instructions:

• Put all the ingredients into a pot. Stir thoroughly until everything is well mixed.
• Heat on high and bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes on low or until the tomatoes are starting to soften.
• Serve on slices of toast and eat it while it is still hot

We used prosciutto with ours since I had a hunk of prosciutto in the fridge. I slice off some 1/2 cm hunks and then diced them up into small pieces. The Boy said that the prosciutto turned the baked beans from pedestrian to classy. Well, to be exact he said the prosciutto might have been too classy for baked beans but it sure did make the dish taste good. :-)

For some reason, we often forget that jazzed up baked beans makes a very satisfying meal. The Boy kept saying that we definitely need to remember to have baked beans more often. It's a lovely addition to the other things that we regularly do for breakfast.

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Chicken liver pate ... in the Thermomix

I am a huge fan of pate but don't eat it that often as I do not like the store bought stuff. I recently went to one of my favorite restaurants and they changed their menu to include a pate on it. Of course, I had to try it and instantly got addicted and just wanted more.

Being new to the town that we are living in now, I didn't know where I could find liver of any sort, so I asked around on Facebook and a chef friend of mine suggested a butcher, while others suggested a hatchery. Turns out the local hatchery does not sell to the public, but I can order the livers in (any type - chicken, duck or goose) from the butcher and it takes a day to deliver, which is pretty good. I just need to plan ahead a little bit.

So, I ordered some chicken liver for the pate and enquired about goose and duck. Goose is available but takes longer to deliver, also much more expensive. Both chicken and duck are readily available.

I could not order in small quantities and the minimum order was 2kg, so I have quite a bit of chicken liver! :-) Enough to make up 4 batches.

I also love the fact that I can find almost anything for the Thermomix and found this recipe for the pate in the Thermomix.

Here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

• 500 grams chicken livers
• 125 grams Butter
• 250 grams bacon
• 1 onion
• 60 grams any spirit, eg vodka, scotch, rum
• 1 dash Garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons cream

Seal:

• 250g of butter melted in the microwave to clarify

Instructions:

• Place quartered onion and bacon into TM jug and turbo pulse to dice up.
• Add washed and deveined livers and all other ingredients except cream.
• Cook for 15 minutes at 100 degrees reverse speed 1.
• Add cream and blitz 10 seconds speed 7.
• pour into various bowls/containers.
• Can be frozen

Seal:

• Spoon the clarified butter on top of pate to completely cover it to form a seal. This will help the pate keep longer. Be careful not to spoon any of the milk solids into the pate or you will get a cloudy seal.
  

I did follow the recipe fairly closely but was not sure what they meant by "dash" of garlic powder, so I used 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder and also 1/4 teaspoon of salt, though I do know what a pinch of salt is. (The 1/4 teaspoon of salt was not too much. You can hardly taste it.)

I also wanted my pate to be smoother, so I did an additional blitz of 10 seconds on speed 8. I think I should have blitzed it a bit more, as I would have liked it even smoother than it turned out.

The pate came out of the Thermomix very hot and needed to be cooled before serving. I put the pate into 5 medium sized ramekins and filled it to the line on the ramekin then sealed it with the clarified butter.

After that, I popped the pate into the fridge to set. This took about 3 - 4 hours.

I am really pleased with how the pate turned out. It was delicious, and it also smelled and tasted like pate. The Boy who is not a fan of pate, really enjoyed it too. We had a lovely afternoon tea of pate on toast points, accompanied with champagne. Very lush indeed!.

I think I am going to try this same recipe with duck livers at some point.

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


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Grand Marnier souffle ... in the Thermomix

I have recently decided that I need to spend more time working on and testing dessert recipes as desserts seem to be the most lacking component of my cooking repertoire. As a result, we did a little shopping trip to my favorite bargain book store and picked up a heap of dessert recipe books.

Even before the recipe books, I decided that I would like to try my hand at a souffle because I wanted to focus more on individual serve desserts rather than big pies and cakes (plus I suck at baking!).

I had a few souffle recipes in the books I got but randomly found a Youtube video of a really corny American guy (you have to watch the video to get what I mean!) making a Grand Marnier souffle to impress a girl on Valentine's Day. Of course, if you want to make the souffle the traditional method, by all means, just do what the guy did in his video (with his freakishly small spatula!). I have also included links below to the written recipes.

I decided to study the recipe and convert it for the Thermomix because (1) I could not find a Thermomix Grand Marnier souffle recipe and (2) The Boy really wanted a Grand Marnier souffle. He's been talking about it forever.

It took quite a while to convert the recipe from a regular recipe to a Thermomix recipe and I worked on it for a little over an hour, researching other souffle recipes to compare and to make sure that I got the timing and settings right. I have to admit, going into making the souffle that I was quite stressed and anxious as I did not know if it would turn out, or rise, or taste good. (The initial batter was not tasty at all!!)

Here's the recipe for what I did:

Ingredients: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grand-Marnier-Souffle/Detail.aspx 

• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 5 teaspoons butter, melted
• 5 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cold milk
• 2 egg yolks (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
• 1 tablespoon brandy-based orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier®)
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar, divided

Creme Anglaise (souffle filling): http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creme-Anglaise-Sauce/Detail.aspx 

• 2 large egg yolks (room temperature)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon brandy-based orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier®)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

• Butter and sugar ramekins and set aside on top of baking sheet.  Butter the ramekin and use a brush with strokes going straight up the sides. It encourages the rise to work properly.
• Heat oven up to 180°C
• Add butter, flour, milk, egg yolks, orange zest, grand marnier liquer and vanilla extract into Thermomix. Cook on  7min/90C/speed 4. VERY IMPORTANT: Check it at 5 minutes and make sure that is has not gotten too thick. Add more milk if necessary. You can't just let it run for the full 7 minutes without checking it, as your batter will probably end up too thick and dense, and not creamy enough! It needs to be a thick, creamy consistency. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.
• In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites and slowly add sugar until they form soft peaks. Insert the butterfly whisk and whisk the egg whites on speed 3 measuring cup OFF / 4 minutes. Add sugar slowly when it starts to foam. Continue whisking until soft peaks (the whites shouldn't be very firm).
• Pour grand marnier mixture into a bowl when it is lukewarm, add 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and stir vigorously to loosen it. Then, add the remaining egg whites and fold them in gently in order to keep as much air in as possible.
• Bake in the preheated oven until risen and browned, 16-20 minutes.
• To serve, take out of oven, sprinkle with icing sugar. Then, make a hole in the middle of the souffle and pour in 3 tablespoons of the Creme Anglaise. Makes it very lush! Serve and eat immediately!!
  

Creme Anglaise (souffle filling):

• Add everything into TM bowl. Cook 8 min/80C/speed 3.
• Pour into a small gravy boat or a milk jug to serve.

This recipe makes 2 medium sized souffles. If you want to make more, just double or triple the recipe as required.

From start to finish, between prep and cooking time, this took between 45 - 60 minutes, so if you are planning on making this for dessert after a dinner party, be prepared for that. It could take a while between courses.

Also, I didn't slowly pour the sugar into the egg whites to slowly whisk to make soft peaks. I just dumped all the sugar in and whisked away. I did, however, stop and check while whisking and whisked a total of about 4 - 4.5 minutes. The meringue was quite soft (slighly liquidy but not runny) and very glossy in texture. I expect that if you didn't want to check it and just ran it for 4 minutes, you could be okay, but with meringues I like to be safe and check regularly. It's a fine line and a short time between just right and too much!

This was a two Thermomix bowl jobbie for me. I used the first bowl to make the batter. Then immediately switched to the second bowl to make the meringue. After that, I washed (okay, The Boy washed, not me!) the first bowl and set it aside to use to make the Creme Anglaise. If you do not have two Thermomix bowls, then you will have to quickly wash and dry between each step.

I got so darned excited when I checked (okay, stalked!) the oven to see if it had risen at all, and it had!!

I have to say, I am super happy with the way that this turned out. It was light, fluffy and delicious. Adding the Creme Anglaise in the middle made it super decadent. When you poke a hole in the souffle to pour in the Creme Anglaise, just bear in mind that your souffle will deflate somewhat because of you putting a hole in it.

The Boy was super pleased with the dessert (we had it for afternoon tea as I was recipe testing!) and even went so far to say that it was the best thing he had ever put in his mouth. :-) Of course, that compliment from him made me very happy!

If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
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Pork dumplings with chili oil

I recently bought a cookbook called "Asian Wraps & Rolls" by Vicki Liley, which I've started using. The reason I bought this cookbook was also the reason for this post. These very yummy pork dumplings. I was browsing through the cookbook while at the store and when I saw the recipe for pork dumplings, it sealed the deal for me!

I have to say that I love dumplings. Well, both The Boy and I do and we've been buying ours from Chinese grocery stores frozen, which we would then steam for a snack or a light lunch.

However, I wanted to make them myself (so much more control as we don't live near any Chinese grocery stores now) and this recipe made it a great opportunity for me to do so.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

• 150g ground minced pork
• 150g jumbo shrimp / king prawns, shelled and deveined (I use frozen ones that have been defrosted)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon peeled and freshly grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro (fresh coriander)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Vietnamese mint
• 16 wonton skins

For chili oil:

• 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 1 teaspoons kechap manis
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon Chinese red vinegar

Instructions:

• In a good processor, combine pork, shrimp, garlic, ginger and salt. Process for 20 seconds, or until well blended. Transfer to a bowl and add cilantro and mint. Using wet hands, mix until well combined.
• Place wonton skins on a work surface. Cover remaining skins with a clean damp cloth.
• Place 1 tablespoon of pork filling in centre of wonton skin and brush edges of skin with water. Gather edges around filling, forming a basket. Gently squeeze centre of dumpling so that the filling is exposed at top. Tap base of dumpling on work surface to flatten. Set aside on a tray and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining wonton skins and filling.
• Line a medium sized bamboo steamer with parchment (baking paper). Fill a medium sized wok about 1/3 full with water (steamer should not touch the water). Bring water to a boil. Arrange the dumplings in steamer. Cover with lid. Place steamer over boiling water. Steam for 12 minutes, adding more water to wok as necessary.
• Meanwhile, stir all chili oil ingredients together in a small bowl. Lift steamer off work and carefully remove dumplings from steamer. Serve hot, with chili oil for dipping.

I doubled the recipe as I wanted to make a bit more so that I would have some leftovers for lunch the next day as I made these for an afternoon snack and also perhaps, if there was enough, to freeze for another day. Alas, between us eating them (The Boy had seconds) and me giving some of them away to my neighbour, we didn't have much left. There's enough for me to have a small serve for lunch tomorrow. I'll need to make more next time.

I did do a few things differently, just because I had some ingredients (in different forms) already in the fridge and I wanted to use them. I used the same measurements (just doubled) for the substitutes.

Instead of freshly chopped coriander and ginger, I used a coriander paste and a ginger paste from Gourmet Garden. They do some lovely herb pastes that are excellent quality and taste wonderful.

I also used minced garlic from a jar rather than fresh garlic, again because I had some in the fridge and I was wanting something quick and easy with minimal chopping to get the snack made quickly.

The grocery store did not have Vietnamese mint, so I just used plain old mint. It was a fine substitute.

I put everything except the mint into the food processor (I used my Thermomix!) and mixed it for 10 seconds instead of 20, just because my Thermomix mixes faster. If you are using a regular food processor, try the 20 seconds but keep an eye on your mixture. You don't want to over process it. Then, I hand mixed the mint through the meat mixture, just so that the mint was still in little pieces rather than processed to mush.

When steaming, make sure that you allow quite a bit of space between the dumplings as they do expand in size when they are cooked. I made the mistake of not allowing enough room as I wanted to steam them all in one batch and they got pretty stuck together. Fortunately, I was able to remove them without damaging the wrapper.

These turned out SUPER tasty. We usually put soy and chili sauce over our dumplings, but in reality these did not need them, in particular it did not need the chili sauce.

I hope you try these out. If you do make this, be sure to post pictures for me to see either on Instagram - be sure to tag me with @langshipley or on my Daz In The Kitchen Facebook page.


© This work is copyrighted to Invest-Ex and Destiny's Fortunes Pty Ltd

Find me around SOCIAL MEDIA:
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