Sweet Potato Curry Puffs, Chili Fish with Sweet Lemon Salad

It’s only taken me three years to finally make something from Donna Hay’s beautiful cookbook Off the Shelf, which I received some time ago as a holiday gift from Irene. It’s not that I don’t look at the book – I do. The photos are gorgeous, and the food looks really good. Donna Hay started her career as a food stylist, and it shows. I swear, she could make a dirty pot look appetizing.

But the book is almost too gorgeous to be called a cookbook. It reminds me more of a coffee-table book about cooking. Think of a paper verion of Giada De Laurentiis’ show on the Food Network. I hate that show. It’s over-edited, over-produced, perfect knife sounds overlaid whenever she slices an onion, fancy angle shots on the food, that perfect little smile every time she looks at the camera. Annoyingly perfect. And nothing like a real kitchen.

But I do like Off the Shelf. Why? Because, despite the styling, the recipe ideas in it are wonderful. Really. And they’re different, yet often very simple to make. Recipes like warm potato and tuna salad, spaghetti with asparagus and lemon cream, salmon on fennel salad, crisp rice omelet. There are a lot of light recipes in here, too.

The book is organized atypically, if not exactly intuitively, according to category of staples that you might have on your kitchen shelves. (Some might argue that miso paste is not really a staple for most of us, but we’ll let that go.) Chapter titles are Pasta, Rice, Grains and Lentils, Mediteanean, Asian, Pastes (harissa, miso and curry pastes, mustards), Bake (flour, baking powder, nuts chocolate)and Sweet (sugar, honey and the like). Within each chapter, there is a section called Basics, then Tricks and Tips, then a whole lot of recipes.

Hay’s point in organizing her book this way is to get you thinking about ingredients in your cupboard not just as something on a shopping list for one recipe, but as inspiration for meals. That’s a good idea for cooks who might buy Asian Red curry paste for a single recipe, then stick it in the fridge and forget about it for a year. If you find yourself asking “What else can I use this stuff for?” then Off the Shelf is the book for you.

Every single recipe in this book has an accompanying photo. To make room for the photos, the recipes are written in the briefest of form, anywhere from 4 – 9 on a page. This means that there are few instructions. For example, the recipe I made last night starts out “Cook 1 tablespoon peanut oil, 1 chopped onion and 1 tablespoon Thai green curry paste for 1 minute.” Cook it where? On the stove? In the oven? And in what kind of pan? And what size onion? Now, I knew to saute it, and because I read the recipe, that I’d need a pan big enough to hold the sweet potatoes that were coming up next. And I used a medium onion. So if you know a bit about cooking technique, the recipes have all you need, and you’ll appreciate the opportunity to do your own thing without being spoon fed. But if you’re a fledgling cook, this book may not be for you.

One other thing – Quantities are often weight, not volumes. But I don’t mind that, I have a great little kitchen scale with a bowl attached. And I feel so European cooking by weight…

In addition to her cook books, Donna has a web site and a magazine. Her motto is “Turn simple into special”. Here’s a quote form her bio:”…cooking has allowed her to create a brand that is accessible to anyone who has a kitchen.” When I read that, I realized what exactly it is that annoys me about her book – she is using branding techniques on simple foods, selling us capers and flour and sugar as something more than the plain ingredients they are. She doesn’t need to do that, anymore that Giada needs to overlay sizzling sound clips when she throws a pice of meat into a pan. It’s over-styling. She should have put the energy into writing the recipes, as far as I’m concerned.

…But I’m rambling. The whole point of this post was to tell you that I finally got over myself enough to actually make a few items from the Off the Shelf, specifically from the Pastes chapter. I made Chili Fish with Lemon Salad, and served it with Sweet Potato Puffs. The meal was absolutely delicious, and my family loved it. The three items were a great combo on the plate and on the palate.

So now, depite my complaints about it, I’m totally sold on this cookbook as a great source of ideas, and can’t wait to make something else from it.

Sweet Potato Curry Puffs

These are like samosas. They have a nice bite to them. Since the recipe itself was written as a single paragraph with ingredients in the sentences, and lacked basic intruction or an ingredient list, I’m re-writing it here the way I think Donna should have.

1 tbsp peanut oil
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp Thai green curry paste
600 gm (about 3 cups) peeled and finely diced sweet potatoes (I used yams)
3/4 cup coconut cream (I assumed that meant coconut milk)
1/2 cup thawed frozen peas
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 beasten egg
5 inch puff pastry rounds (Sorry, that’s all she says. Actually, what she says is “Place [mixture] in the middle of 5 inch puff pastry rounds.” Not how much filling, or how much pastry. I’d say you need pastry enough for about 24 rounds, but have no idea how much pastry I’d need to make to get that. I used store bought pastry, got 16 puffs, and had some filling leftover.)
8 oz Yogurt
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (or more)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat 1 tbsp peanut oil till hot, then saute 1 chopped onion and 1 tbsp Thai green curry paste for 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes and coconut cream and cook, covered, over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add peas and chopped coriander and allow the mixture to cool. (Actually, I added the coriander with the potatoes.) Meantime, roll out puff pastry and cut into 5 in rounds. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place round onto sheet, and place about 2 tbsp filling into it. Fold over pastry and press edges to seal. Brush with egg wash. Bake for about 20 mins till puffed and golden. Serve with plain yogurt blended with some chopped fresh mint.

Chili Fish with Sweet Lemon Salad

The real star of this dish is the lemon salad, so I’m giving it it’s own photo. It is absolutely an amazing little side dish that I know I’ll be making again and again. You can really use any Asian spice rub on the fish. It’s the combo with the cucumber and the lemon salad that makes it special.

Sweet Lemon Salad
4 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1 red chili, seeded and chopped (That may be too hot. We used red chili pepper flakes, about 1/8 tsp)
1/4 cup chopped mint
cracked black pepper and salt to taste

Peel the lemons, removing and discarding the white pith. Chop the flesh into a dice. (Hard to do this without losing all the juice, so we just used a grapefruit knife to get out the sections and served them whole. In Hay’s book, it looks like thye used a tiny melon baller to get the lemon pieces.) Combine with sugar, chili, mint, pepper and salt.

Chili Fish on Cucumber
4 – 7 oz pieces firm white-fleshed fish (We used Telapia)
2 tbsp Asian red chili paste
2 tbsp cilantro (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 sweet cucumbers, sliced to serve

Spread the chili paste on the fish and sprinkle with coriander. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. (We used a regular saute pan, and needed a little more oil) Add fish and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until tender.

To serve, place the cucumber slices on plate, top with the fish. Spoon some lemon salad on the side and serve.

Category: Food