Tag: Fingerfood

Rebel With A Cause – Smoked Trout Empanadas

Have you ever read a recipe where the ingredients seem right….but the execution just seems horribly wrong?

Smoked Trout Empandas8
Smoked Trout Empandas8

The other day I was looking for something in…you know THAT room?  Otherwise known as the room where we dumped all the crap we didn’t have a specific home for when we first moved in.  Nearly a year later?  It’s all still there.  Thank the Lord for whoever invented doors.  It makes it so much easier to metaphorically close the door and walk away from the room when you can literally close the door and walk away from the room.

I didn’t find what I was looking for in the room, because most things that go in there don’t come out.  What I did find was a manilla folder full of old recipe clippings which included one for something called for Trout and Mascarpone Triangles.

Before we get to the point does anyone else have problems spelling mascarpone?  For some reason in my mind it’s marscapone. I also can’t say the word “Preliminary” – that one just ends up a hot mess of r’s and l’s where they shouldn’t be.

But anyway, immediately in my head, (yeah the same one that can’t spell ma-scar-pone or pronounce pre-lim-in-ary) I had a vision of what these would be.  They would look like exactly like these:

Smoked Trout EmpanadasHmm…except….maybe a little more triangular.

So, I was bitterly disappointed when I actually read the recipe and found it was nothing like that.

Trout & Mascarpone TrianglesIn fact, that whole recipe annoyed the hell out of me.  In most cooking circles when you call something an X & Y triangle it’s pretty much a given that the X and Y are IN the triangle. Take these delicious looking cheese and spinach triangles from taste.com.au.    Spinach and Cheese both EXACTLY where they should be i.e. inside the pastry triangle.

 

That is what I wanted from my trout and mascarpone triangles! Golden puff pastry filled with chunks of gorgeous pink smoked trout, creamy mascarpone, fresh herbs, a touch of chilli….that was what my mind told me a Trout and Mascarpone Triangle could, and should, be.

At best the original recipe is for trout and mascarpone ON triangles.  And who the hell wants that?  No one that’s who.  I’m calling shenanigans on that recipe.

In some circles they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.  In my circle I say if you think their recipe is a crock, make it like you think it should have been.  And while we’re in the spirit of rebellion –  the fancy pants Italian cheese I can’t be bothered writing the name of (because I would only have to re-write it to spell it correctly) can go fuck itself too. I’m using good old Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  Which I forgot to take a photo of.  The rest of the stuff is here:

Smoked Trout Empanadas3
Smoked Trout Empanadas3

I used a smoked trout, you could sub in smoked salmon if you prefer or cook a fillet of fish as per the original recipe.  Or even used canned salmon or tuna to make these.  Up to you.  And I had an empanada maker thing but you could make triangles as per the original recipe.  Or embrace the spririt of doing it your way and make them any shape you want!

If you are going to use an empanada maker, here’s how you do it from an expert,Connie Veneracion.  Shame I didn’t read this until after I had made mine and hence some of mine were a little…shall we call them rustic?     😉

How To Use An Empanada Maker

 

Smoked Trout Empanadas7
Smoked Trout Empanadas7

And here is the revised, and in my not so humble opinion, vastly improved recipe!

Enjoy!

Print

Smoked Trout Empanadas

Ingredients

Scale
  • 400 smoked trout or cooked fish of choice
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 red onion, finely chopped
  • 100g cream cheese, chopped into a small cubes
  • 1 canned chipotle chilli and approx 1 tbsp of the adobo sauce it came in
  • 1 tbsp dill
  • 1 tbsp parsley
  • 2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • poppy seeds and chilli flakes to garnish (optional)

Instructions

  1. If using a smoked trout, remove the skin and flake the flesh from the bones. Place this in a bowl with the cream cheese, red onion, lemon juice, chilli, dill and parsley. Mix lightly to combine.
  2. Preheat your oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  3. Cut four circles out of each of your pastry sheets, using your empanada maker or tracing around a small plate or cup.
  4. Place 1 tbsp of the trout mixture in the middle of each circle then fold the pastry over to seal in the filling.
  5. Crimp the edges to seal.
  6. Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg.
  7. Sprinkle with the poppy seeds and chilli flakes if using.
  8. Cook for 15 minutes or until puffed up and golden.

Lesson of the week – if you don’t like it, change it.

Have a fabulous week and fight the power!

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RFFMT – Welcome to Book Club

I joined a book club!

I think it’s kind of weird that it’s taken me this long – I love to read and I love to talk about books I have read.  However, this is a rather special club catering to those of fairly specific tastes.  Don’t worry, I am not about to get all 50 shades of weird on you;  it is a food lovers book club where, instead of novels, we discuss cookbooks.

I am a cook book junkie.   Here is part of my collection.  .

BookshelfThere is also another shelf in a different room that has most of the retro food books. Then there are the hundreds of magazines…..and regular trips to the local library.

So, given this problem predilection when I read in their weekly newsletter that my local book store was starting a food lovers book group, I did a little dance of joy.  No, not quite like this…well…maybe a little.

 The First Rule of Book Club

Each meeting will have a theme.  The first theme was Winter warmers. Members have a choice of three books that they could purchase related to that theme. The books were really well chosen by the owners in terms of both variety, audience and price point.

Whoo, hoo….new cookbook fix guaranteed.  And to those annoying people who ask “Don’t you have enough cookbooks?” (you know who you are) you can genuinely say.  “I had to buy it, it was for book club”.

I chose Slow by Valli Little which was actually the cheapest option but I love her work in Delicious Magazine and I knew there would be plenty in here I could, and would, make outside of the group.  I was not disappointed on this count – it jam packed with great ideas for everyday cooking.  And, incidentally, this book was rated the best on value and practicality as well as being visually alluring.

Second Rule of Book Club

You  must cook from the book you have chosen.

This is utter genius.  So, not only do you get your cookbook fix but you also have none of that guilt of buying a book and never actually making anything from it.

I made the Autumn Rosti from Valli’s book, my slightly adapted version of the recipe below.

#100happydays Off to Tasty Reads book club with some delicious smoked salmon rosti

 Third Rule of Book Club

You must have evidence of cooking from the book.

This could be in photographic form or, as I and some of the others chose to do, you could bring evidence of your cooking to the meeting for the group to sample.

Best.  Idea. Ever.

I took along my rosti.  We also had an amazing Chicken Liver and Porcini Pate, a killer Carrot and Lentil Soup, a super tasty Lamb and Apricot Tagine with couscous and we ended the evening with a delicious Carrot Cake.  The following pictures of the soup and the tagine are from Valli’s book.  I did not take pictures of the food on the night because “Hey,  I’ve just met you and this seems crazy but I’m going to take photos of your food  and put them on the internet”  is no song I want to be singing. However, in both instances, as with my rosti, the actual product looked a lot like the picture.

Valli Little's Lamb & Apricot Tagine
Valli Little’s Lamb & Apricot Tagine

Working within the theme allows you to step out of your normal comfort zone and try something new and or different.  And tasting other people’s goodies can also expand your horizons.  I generally do not like cooked carrots and one of the worst soups I have ever eaten was full of bits of grated carrot.  So I did not look twice at the Carrot and Lentil Soup recipe in Valli”s book. Not interested.  Not even remotely.  In fact, I could not turn the page fast enough.

Luckily for me, someone else did give it a second look.

Valli Little's Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup from Slow
Valli Little’s Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup from Slow

DISH OF THE NIGHT.  Who knew carrot soup could taste so good.  How good?  I’m making it as we speak. Damn it was good! Make it.  Make it now!  (Recipe below). You will not be disappointed.  And even if you are? Firstly what is wrong with you?  And second, get over it.  By my reckoning this costs about $2.50 to make. At around 40 cents a serve even if you hate it, which I’m pretty sure you won’t, you’ve lost less than the cost of a cup of coffee.

 Fourth Rule of Book Club

You must talk about your book.

This has to be the fourth pleasure of cooking – the buying, the preparing, the eating and finally, the talking.  You got to speak about what you did and didn’t like about the book and learned about the good and bad of the books you didn’t buy as well. It’s really interesting to see what people do and don’t like.  For instance, this was one of the other books we could choose from:

Salt Grill.

Let me tell you, this cover was controversial.  People had opinions.  I had opinions.  I didn’t know I had opinions but it turned out I did.  I quite like it but other people thought the dirty spoon was kind of gross.

The other great thing was that you got to share war stories.  You know how sometimes you make something and despite following the recipe to the minutest degree it just doesn’t work?  And you automatically assume it was something you did wrong?  Well two people from the club made the exact same recipe and had the exact same problem with it.     Coincidence?  I think not.

It was awesome.  I can’t wait for the next one, where the theme is Middle Eastern.  I have chosen Persiana as my book and it looks amazing!!!!

Persiana

Stay tuned!

Have a great week!

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Valli Little's Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup