The Briny Café
Page 31
Recipes from The Briny Café
ETTIE’S FIERY ROGAN JOSH
Prep time: 20 minutes + overnight marinating
Cooking time: about 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves 4–6
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp mild paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
6 ground cardamom
¼ tsp garam masala
1½ tsp ground fennel
1½ kg boneless shoulder of lamb,
cut into 3 cm pieces
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 brown onions, finely chopped
6 cm piece fresh ginger, grated
4 red chillies
8 garlic cloves
¼ tsp saffron threads (soaked in 1 tbsp warm water)
2 cassia leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
400 g can tomatoes
280 g plain yoghurt
Basmati rice, to serve
Combine ground spices in a medium bowl then add the lamb and toss until the meat is coated. A dedicated cook will leave it overnight in the fridge but it’s fine to continue cooking.
Heat half the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Brown the lamb. Don’t put too much meat in the pan at once or you will stew it and it will become dry when slow-cooked.
Heat the remaining oil in the same pan and cook the onion, ginger, chilli and garlic until the onion is soft and slightly browned.
Add saffron, cassia leaves and cinnamon sticks to the pan. Cook for a minute or two, until fragrant. Increase the heat to high, add the tomatoes and meat. Add the yoghurt spoonful by spoonful, stirring until it blends into the sauce. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 1½ hours or until the lamb is tender. If you like, sprinkle a pinch of garam masala on the finished dish just before serving. Serve with basmati rice.
ETTIE’S LAMB BURGERS
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 8–14 minutes per batch
Serves 4–6
plain flour, for coating
vegetable oil, to fry
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 cucumber, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
handful of chopped mint
Turkish bread, split, toasted and buttered,
approximately three serves per loaf
Butter lettuce leaves, sliced tomato,
sliced red onion, to serve
Tamarind chutney, to serve
Patties
1 kg lamb mince
2 brown onions, grated
½ cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
3 thick slices sourdough bread,
processed into fresh breadcrumbs
To make the patties, use your hands to mix all the ingredients together. Divide into four to six portions, depending on your appetite, and shape into patties about 2 cm thick. Coat in flour and shake off excess. Heat a little oil in a large heavy-based frying pan. Sear both sides on high heat then reduce heat to medium and cook according to taste. Rare takes about three to four minutes each side, well-done takes about seven minutes each side.
Combine the yoghurt, cucumber, garlic and mint. To assemble burgers, lay out toasted bread bases. Arrange lettuce, tomato and onion onto them. Place the burger on top, add dollops of the yoghurt mixture and tamarind chutney, and finish with the top pieces of toasted bread.
ETTIE’S CURE-ALL CHICKEN SOUP
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Stock
1–2 cooked chicken carcasses (from
home-roasted, free-range chickens)
1 brown onion, quartered
1 carrot, quartered
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
1 bunch parsley
2 garlic cloves
1 cm piece fresh ginger, finely sliced
Soup
2 tbs Chinese rice wine
2 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs fish sauce
suggested vegetables: green beans, fresh
corn kernels, snowpeas, red capsicum
bean sprouts, to garnish
For the stock, crush the bones and place into a large saucepan. Add remaining ingredients, and enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook, covered, for 1 hour. Allow to cool, then strain and discard solids.
To make the soup, transfer the stock to a clean saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the wine and sauces. Trim the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Add the beans and corn to pan and cook for a few minutes, until just tender. Add snowpeas and capsicum just before taking off the heat. Serve topped with rinsed bean sprouts.
Optional extras: Add a serve of cooked ramen or udon noodles. Don’t be tempted to cook the noodles in the broth, it makes it cloudy and slightly gluggy. Add chopped chilli to taste, which is great for colds and flu.
Note: Use 12 chicken drumsticks if you don’t have cooked chicken carcasses. When the stock is done, remove cooked meat from bones, put in a separate bowl, and add to soup to heat through when you are ready to eat. Alternatively, use the meat to make sandwiches. The vegetables listed above are just suggestions, you can use whatever you have in the fridge.
ETTIE’S RASPBERRY MUFFINS
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 12
2½ cups self-raising flour
90 g butter, very cold
1 cup caster sugar
1¼ cups buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
30 g desiccated coconut
200 g fresh raspberries (frozen raspberries
can be too wet and turn the muffins mushy)
4 tbs shredded coconut
Preheat oven to 200°C. Prepare 12-hole muffin tin by greasing or with paper cups.
In a food processor, briefly whizz together flour and butter.
Tip into a mixing bowl and add sugar, buttermilk, egg, desiccated coconut and raspberries. Mix lightly and until barely combined (over-mixing toughens the muffin).
Sprinkle with shredded coconut.
Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Leave in the muffin pans for about five minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.
LEMON DELICIOUS PUDDING
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves 6
125 g butter melted
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind (try to find strong
tasting lemons such as Eureka or Lisbon)
1½ cups caste r sugar
3 eggs, separated
½ cup self-raising flour
? cup lemon juice
1? cups milk
2 punnets blueberries
150 ml lemon butter – a good commercial brand
is fine or make your own cream if desired
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Grease six 1-cup ovenproof ceramic bowls.
Combine butter, rind, sugar and yolks in a mixing bowl. Stir in sifted flour and then add the juice. Stir in the milk in small amounts until the mixture is smooth but still runny.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then fold into lemon mixture.
Divide mixture between the dishes and place in a large baking dish with enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides.
Bake for about 45 minutes and serve immediately with lemon butter and blueberries on the side.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many people who have helped with this book. Some stand out. My husband, Bob, whose quiet wisdom and sound advice to wear it away kept me going. Caroline Adams, who came in at the last minute, dished up some much-needed faith and saved me from some awful clangers with her insight, skill and endless tact. Toby Jay and Dave Shirley, who let me ride the waterways on
their beautiful lighter, Laurel Mae, while they pulled masts, serviced moorings, delivered building supplies and patiently explained the intricacies of swivel bolts and bow rollers. Thanks too to Barbara (Bell) Viljoen and Chris Bell, who really did live in a boatshed over the water long ago, and who kindly shared their memories. I must admit, though, that I have embroidered, exaggerated and extended their stories for my own purposes and to turn it into fiction.
I have also written about the preparation of food hoping to inspire anyone who has never found joy in the kitchen to have a go. To me, food is central to the pleasures of life. This might be a good spot to reveal that the cooking method for Peking duck came from world-renowned chef Heston Blumenthal and I have never tried to make it myself. Not yet, anyway. The other recipes mentioned are favourites. Especially the lemon delicious pudding which I love after a Sunday roast lamb. I must confess, too, that I have always yearned to run a seaside café. Now I’ve done it. Theoretically, at least.
Many thanks to Random House for its patience and to Beverley Cousins for her hard work in getting this book over the line. To Jo Jarrah, not just thanks, but gratitude.
To Heather and Cher. Two good women. Thanks for the laughs and for keeping the house on an even keel while I typed.
See you … on the water.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Cook’s Basin does not exist. Nor does The Briny Café. Nor do any of the characters or events that I’ve written about. This is a work of fiction but it is, of course, a homage to Pittwater and the fabulously quirky people who make it such a wondrous place to live.
About the Author
After a 25-year career spanning radio, newspaper and magazine journalism – including editing two of Australia’s top-selling women’s magazines, The Australian Women’s Weekly and New Idea – Susan Duncan woke up one morning and chucked in her job. The decision followed the deaths of her husband and brother. After struggling to begin again, she finally found her own patch of paradise on earth, only to discover it might already be too late when she was diagnosed with cancer herself.
Today Susan lives with her second husband, Bob, on the shores of Pittwater at Tarrangaua, the beautiful home built for poet Dorothea Mackellar in 1925.
Susan’s memoir, Salvation Creek, and its sequel, The House at Salvation Creek, were huge bestsellers. Susan is also the author of the beautifully illustrated coffee-table book, A Life on Pittwater. The Briny Café is her first novel.
Coming soon!
The sequel to THE BRINY CAFÉ!
GONE FISHING
by Susan Duncan
For bargeman Sam Scully, life in Cook’s Basin is nothing short of paradise. A wonderland of golden sand and turquoise waters, battered old tinnies and wonky pontoons, it’s a realm unspoilt by the modern world.
But then a notice goes up in the Square that screams ‘EXCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT!’
Paradise is about to be ripped apart.
With plans underway to build a flash resort in the heart of their community, the residents leap into action - with Sam as their leader, and a twelve-foot papier-mache cockatoo as their mascot . . . But it’s never going to be easy to turn the tide of ‘progress’.
Meanwhile there’s trouble brewing at the Briny Café. Kate Jackson is struggling to come to terms with the dreadful secret spilled on her mother’s deathbed. And as for Kate’s co-owner, Ettie Brookbank… Well, what is happening to Ettie?
Gone Fishing, the sequel to the bestselling The Briny Café, is a heart-warming, inspirational novel about taking a stand against all the odds.
AVAILABLE IN OCTOBER 2013
Also by Susan Duncan
Salvation Creek
The House at Salvation Creek
A Life on Pittwater
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
The Briny Café
ePub ISBN 9781472754383
Copyright © Susan Duncan, 2011
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Bantam book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices
First published by Bantam in 2011
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Duncan, Susan.
The Briny Café [electronic resource]/Susan Duncan.
ISBN 978 1 74214 184 0 (ebook: epub)
A823.4
Cover and line illustrations by Nettie Lodge
Cover design by Christabella Designs
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