Mediterranean Rice Tartelettes - Royal Foodie Joust

It's Royal Foodie Joust time again!! The Royal Foodie Joust is hosted by HRH Jenn, The LeftOver Queen and if you still haven't heard about it or don't know what it is, all I can say is Get With It - this is probably one of the most awesome cyber cooking competitions!

This time around, the ingredients were chosen by the winner of the May Joust - my friend Nuria over at Spanish Recipes and they are:
Bacon
Rice
Tomatoes

Seems quite simple but the difficulty here really is that there are so many options available! My first thought was to make stuffed tomatoes but that would be too simple. Then I thought about a bacon based Briyani but decided that I had already gone along those lines for a previous joust.

What to make, what to make? Then it hit me as I was driving my car.




I remembered a picture I had seen once when I was browsing cookbooks in a bookstore of a tart made with rice. Then I thought of filling the tart with eggplant, mushrooms (gotta have mushrooms!) and bacon and topped off with tomatoes. The picture in my mind looked really good and even though I wasn't quite sure how I would make the tart, I let the picture in my minds eye lead me on!

This is what I did.

Mediterranean Rice Tartelettes - makes 10 tartelettes
Ingredients
1 cup rice
2 eggs - beaten
Salt
8 rashers back bacon - chopped
1 large eggplant - cut into large pieces
3 tomatoes - sliced
2 tsp basil
200g button mushrooms - halved
2 tsp oregano

Method
Cook the rice and let cool. Add in the beaten eggs and mix well ensuring egg is incorporated. Season with salt. Set aside.
Degorge the eggplant by placing the cut pieces in a colander. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, fry bacon till cooked. Set aside
Fry basil and tomatoes together till slightly soft. Set aside
Fry oregano with mushrooms till cooked. Set aside.
Rinse eggplant and then pat dry. Fry till tender. Set aside.

Assembly.
Place rice into tart moulds and bake in a preheated 190C oven for about 15 mins. Place eggplant, then bacon, mushrooms and cover with a slice of tomato. Return to oven and raise temperature to 200C. Bake for another 20 mins. Allow to cool slightly before unmoulding. Garnish with some celery leaves if desired.

The picture I had in my mind had a mushroom half sitting on top of the tomato, but since there was enough mushroom to go into the tarts, I thought it best to keep the mushrooms under wraps!


I was kind of worried as to how to unmould the tartelettes but as they cooled, the tarts pulled in a little and whatever parts remained stuck to the sides were easily removed by sliding a sharp knife in between the mould and the rice. The tarts unmoulded very nicely and kept their shape.

The Lovely Wife had invited her parents over for lunch and so these tartelettes became the appetiser and I had more taste testers that usual. The first tartelette was tasted by The Lovely Wife and she declared it as very good. My son then had a proper tartelette and he enjoyed it immensely. My In-Laws really loved it too and were rather surprised that I had used rice for the tart shell.




I must say that the tartelettes were very delicious too! I think the mix of flavours of tomato, bacon, egpplant and mushrooms complemented each other really well and the rice tart shell gave it a lovely finish. Then again, as Nuria says, anything with Bacon in it is good and I just have to agree with that!



This is definitely something that I will make again although I might vary the fillings. This joust was a lot of fun so thanks once again to Nuria for choosing these great ingredients and of course to Jenn for hosting this great event!

Fusion Vol-au-Vents - Royal Foodie Joust

It's been a while since I took part in the Royal Foodie Joust with my last entry being in October 2008. I'm back though for the February Joust where the ingredients are rather simple with
Mushrooms
Cauliflower and
Noodles

My initial thought was to make a noodle dish or pasta dish. Then I thought this would be what most everyone would do so I left that idea on the back burner. We had some friends over for dinner on Chinese New Year Eve and while thinking of the menu, I hit upon the idea of Fusion Vol-au-Vents!



I used fish, cauliflower, oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, spinach and cream for the filling and then topped it off with thin rice noodles (or mee suah) tosssed in a little olive oil.

This is what I did.

Ingredients:
1 pack ready rolled Puff Pastry
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp oregano
1 fillet of Dory (about 200g)
1 bunch of spinach
200g button Mushrooms
200g oyster mushrooms
1 small head of cauliflower - cut into small florettes
1/2 cup cream
50 g rice noodles
Soy Sauce
Salt
Black Pepper

Method
Make pastry shells by cutting out two circles of puff pastry and then cut a smaller circle into one of the circles to form a ring. Place the ring over the first circle and press firmly. Use some egg wash if you like. With the circles that are cut out, you then then roll them out again to maximise the use of the pastry sheets. Bake in 200C oven till nicely puffed up and then let them dry out a while in the cooling oven.
Meanwhile make the filling. Fry the chopped garlic until soft. Throw in the oregano and give it a good stir. Then add in the cubed fish and stir fry quickly. Remove the fish and set aside. Sautee the the sliced button mushrooms and oyster mushrooms until tender. Throw in the cauliflower and cook till softened. Add in the fish and season with salt and black pepper. Allow to simmer. Meanhwile, boil the spinach and chop finely. Add the spinach to the fish mixture together with the cream. Mix well and allow to simmer till almost dry but still moist.
Before serving, fill the pastry shells with the filling and reheat in oven for about 10 mins. While reheating, soften the noodles in hot water and toss with a little soy sauce. Add to the top of the vol-au-vents just prior to serving.



These were a hit at our dinner party and as I normally do with Vol-au-Vents, I made two sizes. I liked the lightly flavoured soy sauce noodles on top as it gave it an interesting texture.

Chicken Pilaf / Briyani

Hail the Queen! Jenn, the Leftover Queen, organises a monthly Royal Foodie Joust where 3 ingredients are selected by the previous months winner. This month, the 3 ingredients were selected by last month's winner, Emeline of Sugar Plum. She chose to challenge us with :
Pomegranate
Mint
Pistachios

Interesting choice of ingredients and something that me ponder long and hard over what to make. Should I go savoury or should I go sweet? I decided to take the path of a Savoury dish and made a Chicken Pilaf or some would call it a Chicken Briyani.
But first some history.....

What is the difference between a Briyani and a Pilaf. And for that matter, what's the difference between a Pilaf and a Pulao? Well firstly, Pulao is of Persian origin while Pilaf is the Indian name for the same type of dish. So basically, Pulao and Pilaf are the same thing.
Briyani (some spell it Biryani) and Pulao/Pilaf are a little different. Pulao is supposed to be where the meat and rice are stirred and cooked together. Briyani is supposedly where the rice and meat are layered and then baked in a special pot.
So, I'm not really sure what this dish should be because I cooked the rice and meat separately, but then stirred them together before baking it for a while. I guess that because I didn't the meat and rice, this would technically be a Pilaf.
Maybe I should just make it east and call it an Indian Paella!! Funny though isn't it how Pulao, Pilaf and Paella are all rice dishes with meat and cooked similarly (not the same, just similar).
So, how did I make this Chicken Pilaf? Well, having never attempted this dish before and faced with the challenge of using all the three different ingredients, as usual I winged it! This is what I did.

Ingredients:
3 cups of basmati / fragrant rice
4.5 cups water
2 tsp turmeric
5 cloves
2 bay leaves
sprinkle of salt
3 handfuls of Fresh Pomegranate Seeds (1 fruit provides more than ample seeds)

1 large onion
1 clove garlic
1 inch ginger - ground into paste
500g Chicken Breast
3 tsp currypowder
1 tsp chilli powder
8 mint leaves - chopped
3 tsps yoghurt
1 large eggplant - cubed
150 gm brown mushrooms - sliced
100 gm Pistachios - chopped
Black Pepper
Salt

Method:
First, cut open the pomegranade and removed the seeds. Set aside. As you can see, my daughter was a real helper and she enjoyed removing the seeds!



wash the rice and then lightly fry the turmeric, cloves and bay leaves in some oil. Add in the rice and mix well till fragrant. Place rice in a rice-cooker or pot and add in two handfuls of pomegranate seeds. Cook the rice in a rice cooker (or stovetop) with the 4.5 cups water.

Cut chicken into large cubes. Season with salt, pepper and ground ginger paste. Sautee Onions and garlic and then add in curry powder and chilli powder and cook well being careful not to let it burn.

Add in sliced mushrooms and cook till tender then add in the eggplant. Continue to cook adding in some water if necessary. Add in 2/3 of the chopped mint leaves and continue to simmer.


Once rice is cooked, mix the rice together with the cooked chicken. Place chicken pilaf into a casserole dish and garnish with remaining mint leaves as well as chopped pistachios and another handful of pomegranade seeds. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 mins in a 180C oven

The result was a really tasty Chicken Pilaf that the kids and wife really enjoyed. The pomegranate gave the pilaf a light fruity taste every time you bit into one while the pistachios offered a lovely crunchiness. The mint had that nice subtle flavour that went really well with everything else.



I really enjoyed the Royal Joust this time around. Thanks to Emeline for the interesting choice of ingredients!