Tuesday 30 October 2007

ginger honey glazed shallots.

I wasn't really thrilled with these when the came out of the pan. A bit too sweet for my liking. But as the cooled they transformed from sickly sweet lollies, to tempting morsels of complex lusciousness.

And they're bloody easy to make, too.

500g shallots, peeled and left whole. (I had a couple of extra cocktail onions lying around and I added them too)

Bring a pot of water to the boil, Turn off as soo as it hits boiling point and throw your shallots in. Leave for 4-5 mins, drain and run under cold water to refresh. Allow to drain well.

In a wok, bring 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil to smoking point. Add the shallots, Fry for 3 mins, or until golden.



Add a grated 2inch knob of ginger and 4 tablespoons of honey. Continue tossing in wok for another minute or so, until shallots are glazed with thickened mixture.

My recipe says to serve straight way, but I left them to cool, and had them as part of an Asian-inspired tapas platter



Enjoy!!
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10 comments:

stickyfingers said...

Grrr - what did you eat them with?

purple goddess said...

Coriander "pesto", gow gees amd thai-inspired squid bits!!

stickyfingers said...

Sounds delish. I love to embalm chicken pieces in coriader pesto and chuck 'em on the Weber. Goa Tse's are a fave freezer staple at 'Sticky Sur Mer'served with Chinese red vinegar.

Last night Mr SF requested crumbed barramundi so I made a herb and comte crust and we had it with a salad made of braised cabbage and carrot in verjuice with quinoa, watercress and barberries.

purple goddess said...

I use coriander pesto "gremolata" style. Steam some Dromama mussels in chicken/fish stock and white wine, chuck in a handful of coriander pesto and Furry's yer Uncle!!

stickyfingers said...

Nice one! I'm all for an Asian mussel dish - sounds like you could throw coconut milk & chilli into that for another twist.

grocer said...

hey girls,
this might sound rude, but I'll be honest.

the giner shallots to me sounds best with a deeper meat - duck, beef, lamb or on the outside, some grain fed sow (female pork)

re the coriander pesto - have recently done a couple of meals rubbing in a coriander "pesto" (coriander blended with other herbs, spices and nuts) sticking it under the skin etc. 2 examples:

1. mum who has decided she can no longer cook, despite being asked by tafe vic. to set up chinese cooking classes for them, came back to sydney for a week and i said, would you like: (a)bbq chicken, (b) a seasian style curry or (c) paella. she said all of the above so I combined (a)&(b) and we had chicken char grilled on the webber with the homemade curry paste/coriander as a marinade.

2. after the cheese tasting on monday last week a friend started asking when I could get xyz. turns out he was hosting drinks so I said i would organise everything as long as he paid for the food. served chicken drumsticks again with coriander pesto thingy, cooked on weber coals and served with banana and mango chutney (from one of the taste threads surprisingly). other stuff too but that's not the point.

can abide all the other combinations, except i don't know what a barberry is. anyone? bueller?

on the other hand, i am kicking myself as today i saw MULBERRIES at the wholesale market. decided not to buy. then convinced myself that as mulberries are around for about 3 weeks, I would be a fool to ignore the opportunity,, bought a tray, got back to the vehicle and sampled and OH SO DISAPPOINTING!!!
so my question is... are mulberries great, or is the joy in eating mulberries knowing that (a) you can only do so 3 weeks of the year, (b) that if you don't eat them, they will be gone tomorrow, and (c) it annoys the hell out of your mum when you come home with mulberry stains on your school uniform!!!

oh so many stories to tell!

purple goddess said...

No idea on the barberries?? An electronic organiser maybe???

Not a mulberry fan, so don't bother about the short season. Really not a huge berry fan at all.

And all those stories are WHY WE BLOG!!!!

And I'z loves it!!!

stickyfingers said...

No, I disagree Grocer, the heavy ginger flavour would have made the shallots a great addition to the seafood tapas combo. My Chinese family would traditionally have added some dried mandarin peel to the mussels to neutralise the fishy smell too.

As to Barberries they are tiny and can be mistaken for pomegranate seeds. Barberries are an important ingredient in Iranian cookery, and you're most likely to see them in a Persian restaurant or a Middle Eastern grocer's, where they may be labelled under their Persian name, zereshk. (Sounds like something Borat would say)

They may seem exotic, but barberries used to grow all over the place: Europe, Asia and north America, as well as the Middle East. High in pectin, they were much valued for jams and jellies by English cooks, who called them 'pipperages'.

I buy them semi dried in Sydney Road, Brunswick whenever I need a grocery fix of A1's pizzas, labneh, pomegranate products, pitta, kibbeh and fairy floss etc etc. They're traditionally used in rice or salad and I've seen them stirred into yoghurt and have a sharp bitey flavour.

Mulberries - is it that time already? There is a huge tree near me that usually is covered in them, but is not ready yet. Plenty of branches overhanging the street - LOL! Sometimes best left to the silkworms though as the flavour isn't always great.

purple goddess said...

The thing with the giner shallots was, that I think they could be applied to both of what you;re saying. When freshly cooked they were heavy, buttery and very sweet. At that point, I think they lent themselves to pork/goose/duck/game very nicely.

But as they cooled, they became more "Asian", the ginger note became more pronounced and the butter/honey toned down to a smoother, less rich, delicate flavour and mouth feel.

AS you can see from the photos, that were taken when they were freshly cooked, there is some separation of the honey and the oil.

When this cooled and emulsified, it had a completely different flavour profile.

grocer said...

excellent AND educational