I'm in love

I’ve fallen in love again. J is away at the moment but he has nothing to worry about because I am in love with my new Kylie Kwong cookbook. It is absolutely fantastic. One of the aims of the book is to simplify Chinese cooking so all the ingredients in the cookbook can be purchased at your local supermarket (supposedly).

After the most amazing dinner at Bill Kwongs a couple of weeks ago I have become a BIG Kylie Kwong fan. I rented her cookery show on DVD and watched the whole series in one sitting. Fantastic! She even made the Duck plum dish which I was raving about.

Because her new cookbook has just been released, here in Australia, she is everywhere at the moment. Every time I open a magazine she is there. Her PR people must be working overtime. I even heard her cooking on the radio on Friday morning when I was on my way to work. I have to say, cooking over the radio just doesn’t do it for me. But she was making her soft boiled eggs with spring onions and ginger which I am very keen to try. They look delicious in the book.

I had a couple of friends coming to stay so I knew immediately which cookbook I would be using to cook them up a Chinese feast. To be honest I haven’t put the book down since I bought it last week. It’s sitting on the coffee table and every evening I have a flick through it to see if I missed anything on the other 250 flicks through.



I wanted to try out the salad I had at the restaurant and it was absolutely fantastic. A nice surprise when the salad turned out almost identical to the one at the restaurant. It was a Tofu, Black Cloud Ear Fungus, Asian herbs and Sesame salad. Very easy to put together but the flavours were so fresh and delicious together. I will definitely be doing this one again. I knew it was a success when the salad bowl was wiped clean.

For mains we had one of my all time favourite dishes. Egg fried rice with Prawns. In the past when I have made fried rice it always tasted very greasy but this one was excellent. I think it was the ginger that gave it a real zing.

Now dessert was a completely different story because this was one of those ‘lessons learnt’. If the truth be known our dessert was actually the Lindtt Chocolates brought by my visitors because my Peach and Pistacho Semifreddo was nowhere near ready by the time we finished dinner. It was still runny when I went to serve it even though it had been in the freezer for five hours. Oh well next time I’ll just make it the day before.

My visitors had to leave early the next morning so they didn’t even get to taste the dessert when it did eventually set. But I can assure them that it was delicious. I did send them off with a smile after a breakfast of Bircher muesli that I got from Nicky at Delicious Days.

Peach and Pistachio Semmifreddo

1kg ripe peaches, halved, peeled, stones removed, chopped
75g pistachio kernels
600ml thickened cream
4 egg yolks
70g caster sugar

1. Line the base and 2 long sides of an 11x21cm loaf pan with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Place the peach in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Strain the peach puree, gently pressing with the back of a spoon, through a fine sieve into a medium bowl. Set aside
   
2. Place the pistachios in a non stick frying pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, for 5 mins or until toasted. Remove from heat and set aside for 5 mins to cool. Coarsely chop.
   
3. Meanwhile, heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat until just simmering. Remove from the heat. Use an electric beater to beat together the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until thick and pale. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the egg mixture. Place in a clean saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 10 mins or until custard coats the back of the spoon.
   
4. Add the peach puree to the custard. Pour into the prepared pan and cover loosely with foil. Place in the freezer for 2 hours or until almost set.
   
5. Remove from freezer. Roughly break up peach mixture with a metal spoon and quickly transfer to a bowl. Use an electric beater to beat until smooth. Stir in the pistachios. Line the base and 2 long side of the loaf pan with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Return peach mixture to the pan and cover loosely with foil. Place in the freezer for 4 hours or until frozen.
   
6. Turn peach & pistachio semifreddo onto a rectangular serving place. Set aside for 5 minutes to soften slightly. Remove the plastic wrap. Warm a large knife under hot running water and dry with a clean tea towel. Cut the semifreddo into slices and serve immediately.
   

This came from The Australian Good Taste Magazine