The New Art of Cooking: A Modern Guide to Preparing and Styling Delicious Food by Frankie Unsworth

Author:Frankie Unsworth [Unsworth, Frankie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408886724
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2018-06-27T23:00:00+00:00

Ceviche in a green broth

Monkfish tail and bok choy laksa

A proper Malaysian-style laksa – coconut-based broth enriched with galangal, turmeric and lemongrass – has to be up there as one of my favourite dishes of all time. While I’m the first to admit this is very much a shortcut version (purists look away now, as I have omitted a few of the harder-to-source ingredients), the flavour is punchy and the colours are as vibrant as in a more elaborate version. Traditionally you would assemble all the ingredients in the bowl, then pour the broth over the top. Here you add the broth to the bowl first, using the smallest ladle you have, so you don’t splash it every where. This me ans you can accessorise the top without the garnish being buried by a downpour of liquid. Serves 4

MAKING SPRING ONION CURLS Many home cooks discard the green part of a spring onion, but I like to use the whole thing for colour and freshness as part of a final elegant curly garnish. Trim off the spring onion’s tough ends and root and cut it in half lengthways. Slice as finely as you possibly can down the length to get strands. Dunk the strands in iced water and you’ll see them curl into a pretty tangle after a few minutes.

FISH ON THE BONE Poached white fish has a tendency to fall apart, making it tricky to plate it elegantly, but cooking on the bone not only adds extra flavour to the broth, it enables you to keep a pristine portion of fish intact. If you buy a whole monkfish tail, which will weigh about 600–800g, that’s around the perfect quantity for four people. Cut into four cross-section portions straight through the bone, using a really sharp knife.

2 eggs

2 baby bok choy heads, halved lengthways

100g rice vermicelli noodles

1 × 600–800g monkfish tail, cut widthways into 4 equal pieces

4 large raw, unpeeled prawns

2 tbsp tamarind paste, or to taste

1–2 tsp Asian fish sauce, or to taste

FOR THE PASTE

4 sticks lemongrass, bashed with the back of a heavy knife

4cm piece fresh root ginger or galangal, peeled

4cm piece fresh turmeric, peeled, or 1 tbsp ground turmeric

3 red chillies

2 banana shallots, peeled

4 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 × 400ml tins coconut milk

TO SERVE

4 curled spring onions (see opposite page), to garnish

2 limes, cut lengthways into ‘cheeks’ (see here)

A few fresh coriander leaves

A few fresh Thai basil leaves

1 watermelon radish or regular radish, finely sliced into matchsticks

Roughly chop the paste ingredients minus the oil and coconut milk, pop in a food processor and whizz to a paste (you might need some of the oil to assist in loosening this). Alternatively, chop everything finely by hand. I include the chilli seeds, but taste a tiny bit of yours first to check how hot they are and add accordingly.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and add the paste (or finely chopped ingredients). Lower the heat and fry for 10 minutes to release all the different aromas.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.