Cookbook 203: Tonight’s Dinner 2

Who doesn’t love Adam Liaw, his happy face, wonderful recipes and kindness towards his guests on TV? I certainly love him and love trying out his recipes, because they are generally great and reliable. The less guesswork for me, the better.

Adam Liaw’s Tonight’s Dinner 2 is the sequel to his Tonight’s Dinner, a cookbook I loved when I cooked from it. I am behind, once again, on my updating of this blog, so I can’t remember when I cooked from this (sometime last year) and my notes are very fuzzy except for two of the four dishes. I do remember I cooked the dessert on a separate night because we were all full from dinner, so that’s one good thing. The dessert and the other dish I recall were amazing, so 5 stars.

Jambalaya-style sausage rice (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 8 good-quality pork sausages (you do you if you don’t like pork)
• 25g butter
• 1 green capsicum, diced
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced, whites and greens separated
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons smoke paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 Litre chicken stock
• 400g tinned diced tomatoes
• 2 1/2 cups uncooked jasmine rice

Method

1. Heat a large, shallow casserole dish over a medium heat and add the oil. Brown the sausages and remove from the pan. The sausages don’t need to be cooked through at this point.
2. Add the butter, capsicum, onion, celery and white part of the spring-onions and cook for about 5 minutes until softened and fragrant. Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the bay leaves, spices, salt and pepper, mixing well. Pour in the stock and tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Stir in the rice to combine, then return to a simmer.
4. Push the sausages into the rice, then reduce the heat to very low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and stand for 5 minutes. Scatter with the spring onion greens to serve.

Notes

• I was cooking this to share with someone who only eats chicken, and used chicken sausages. I don’t think they worked. Pork, beef or lamb sausages would have been a lot more satisfying.
• Provided you have a shallow casserole dish or deep sautee pan, this dish is quick and pretty easy to make. It’s not expensive either.

Tofu with sesame, garlic & chilli oil (serves 4 as part of a shared meal)

Ingredients

• 300g silken tofu
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• toasted sesame seeds, for sprinkling

Sesame Sauce (makes extra)

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons sake
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Quick chilli oil (makes extra)

• 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Korean chilli powder or chilli flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Method

1. For the sesame sauce, toast the sesame seeds in a dry drying pan over a medium-low heat until fragrant. Transfer to a high-speed blender, add the remaining ingredients and blend to a smooth paste. Mix about a tablespoon of the sesame sauce with enough cold water to form a loose sauce. Transfer the remaining sauce to an airtight container, it will keep in the fridge for several weeks.
2. For the chilli oil, if using the Sichuan peppercorns, toast them in a dry frying pan until fragrant, then grind to a coarse powder using a mortar and pestle. Add the chilli powder and whole sesame seeds. Heat the oil in a small saucepan until smoking, then pour over the mixture. Cool to room temperature, then transfer to an airtight container to keep in the pantry, where it will keep for several weeks.
3. Turn the tofu out of its container and sandwich between two sheets of paper towel. Stand for 10 minutes to absorb the excess moisture. Use the container to transfer the tofu to a serving plate (so it doesn’t break up).
4. Heat a small frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil. Fry the garlic for a minute or two until lightly browned. Add the soy sauce and remove from the heat.
5. Pour the soy sauce and garlic mixture over the tofu. Spoon the loose sesame sauce over and as much of the chilli oil as you like. Serve scattered with the spring onion and toasted sesame seeds.

Notes

• Both the quick chilli oil and the sesame sauce were used on dumplings in the weeks following. They are good sauces.
• This dish was easy and tasty. You just spoon yourself some tofu with the sauces onto your plate and consume. It would be easy to have this multiple nights in a row on those hot days when you don’t want to cook much.

Shiitake, garlic and spring onion noodles (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 8 large spring onions, julienned
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 500g thin egg noodles
• black vinegar, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling water. Stand for 15 minutes to rehydrate.
2. Remove the shiitake, reserving the steeping water. Using scissors, cut off and discard the stems, and very thinly slice the caps. Place the steeping water and sliced caps in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the sauces and sugar.
3. Heat the oil in a separate saucepan over a medium heat and add the spring onion. After a few minutes, when the spring onion is starting to brown, add the garlic, then fry for another minute or two until the garlic is lightly browned and the onion crisp. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel, reserving the oil for the noodles.
4. Cook the noodles for just 30 seconds to 1 minute in plenty of boiling water. Drain, then place in a large bowl with the garlicky oil and mushroom sauce. Stir to coat the noodles.
5. Transfer the noodles to serving bowls. Top with the crisp spring onion and garlic, and serve with a little black vinegar if desired.

Notes

• Be careful with the timing on the noodles. The ones I purchased needed to be cooked for about 8 minutes, so cooking them for that little time would have been a disaster. Basically cook the noodles until they are just done. Use your judgement on what that means for the noodles you have.
• This is fancy packet ramen, and needs more to go with it. Pair this with fried eggs, a stir-fry or something else to get the best from it.

Double-chocolate skillet cookie (serves 4 – 6)

Ingredients

• 250g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g dark brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 180g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
• 180g white chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt flakes
• vanilla ice cream, to serve

Method

1. Heat your oven to 160C fan forced (180C non fan forced)
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla. Sift in the flour and baking powder, a little at a time, folding it into the liquid. Fold in the chocolate, pecans and salt, without overmixing, reserving a few pieces for the top.
3. Spoon the batter into a 24cm ovenproof frying pan (you don’t need to line the pan). Press the reserved chocolate and pecans into the top. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes until browned around the edges but still slightly soft in the centre.
4. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream.

Notes

• I made this while on a weekly family call and they all wanted to be at my house to eat it with me (an impossibility for most of them)
• It was very chocolaty, very rich and definitely a sometimes food. But a great treat and certainly a way to impress dinner party guests.