Recipe: Slipper Lobster, Avocado and Mayo Crostini

I was inspired to make these crostinis for lunch after seeing Gordon Ramsay's recipe for crayfish, avocado and mayo toasties in his cookbook "Fast Food".  I had to make some adaptations to suit the ingredients I had in my kitchen - we can't get hold of crayfish easily here in KL, so I used slipper lobster instead.

Slipper Lobster, Avocado & Mayo Crostini

I also made crostini instead of toasties. Crostini is an Italian appetizer, similar to bruschetta consisting of a small sliced of toasted or grilled bread with toppings. You can use baguette or any good quality rustic bread. I sliced the baguette and toasted it under a hot grill for a couple of minutes. The crunchy baguette is then topped with creamy avocado and mayo slipper lobster. I also decided to add quartered cherry tomatoes for colour and it also enhances the overall taste.

Lots of great textures and flavours in these little bites, certainly an enjoyable and quick to prepare meal. Great for a hot sunny afternoon.

We had some ebikko in the fridge, so topped it on some of the crostinis - I really liked it!

Slipper Lobster, Avocado and Mayo Crostini
Recipe by Baby Sumo, inspired by Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 2 minutes
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
200g slipper lobster
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1/4 tsp truffle oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 ripe avocado
2 calamansi limes
1 French loaf, sliced at a diagonal 1cm thick

Optional toppings
4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2-3 tsp ebikko (shrimp roe)

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Once boiling, lower to medium heat then add the slipper lobster and cook for about 1 minute, until cooked through. Remove from pot and plunge into a bowl of ice water for about 2 minutes. Once cooled, drain and chop the slipper lobster into bite-sized chunks.

2. Place slipper lobster in a bowl and add mayo and truffle oil. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

3. To pit the avocado, first you need to find the stalk and remove it. Hold it horizontally, with a knife through the centre until you hit the seed then move the knife in a circular motion until you go all the away around. Twist the avocado halves in opposite direction and it will come apart easily into 2 halves. Sink the knife into the avocado seed and remove. Peel off skin. Squeeze calamansi lime juice all over to avoid discoloration. Chop the avocado into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt.

4. Arrange bread slices on a baking tray and place under hot grill for about 1-2 minutes, until lightly toasted.

5. To serve, top each piece of bread with avocado, followed by the slipper lobster. Garnish with cherry tomatoes. Serve immediately. You can also top with ebikko (optional).



Note: Original recipe uses crayfish and rustic white bread and served as toasties.

Nice and simple

Beautiful vibrant colours 

* I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Gordon Ramsay" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Mich of Piece of Cake. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Gordon Ramsay websites or cookbooks for the whole month of August 2014. You can link your posts at one of the host's pages.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in August 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Mich of Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:




* I am also submitting this post to "Cook-Your-Books #15" hosted by Joyce.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! You can also follow me on Instagram (@babysumo) for more photo updates. Thanks :)

Caprese salad canapes with basil pesto + Jamón Serrano with Rock Melon + Happy New Year 2014

Last Christmas, we decided to have a canape-style brunch with lots of small bites of our favorite food. Hubby loves caprese salad, a classic Italian salad made of sliced fresh mozzarella cheese, ripe tomatoes and fresh basil and seasoned with salt and extra virgin olive oil. I decided to make some "caprese salad on sticks" for our party! The components of our "caprese salad on sticks" are cubes of mozzarella followed by a cube of juicy Momotaro tomato, half a fresh basil leaf and finally topped with some homemade basil pesto which we made earlier that morning.

Pleasurable small bites ;)

I have to say this is quite the perfect canape for Christmas. Beautiful colours of red & green and it looks so pretty on the platter! In our hot weather, the mozzarella melts quite a bit, so store in fridge until you are ready to serve it. We definitely enjoyed these tiny bites!

Caprese salad on sticks 

Another canape we made was the Jamón Serrano with rock melon. I first tasted something similar (prosciutto with melon) when Hubby and I were holidaying in Marbella, Spain - so simple but absolutely delicious. All you need to do is cut the rock melon into cubes (sweet and juicy ones, please) and then wrap the Jamón serrano ham over it. Put it in your mouth and enjoy the wonderful sweet-salty sensation of this canape.

Finally, Happy New Year and hope that 2014 will be a a super duper awesome year for all! :)

Caprese salad on sticks (Caprese salad canapes with basil pesto)
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes 12

Ingredients
1/2 ball mozzarella, cut into small cubes
1 Momotaro tomato, cut into small cubes
Salt
3-4 tbsp homemade pesto (recipe here)
6 fresh basil leaves

1. Season the tomato with some salt. Place the mozzarella, followed by tomato, half a basil leaf and 1/4 tsp of pesto, then secure components together with a food pick.

Homemade basil pesto

Jamon Serrano with Rock Melon
1/2 packet Jamon Serrano or prosciutto, at room temperature
1/4 rock melon (cantaloupe), cut into cubes

1. Wrap each piece of rock melon with a small slice of Jamon Serrano and secure with a food pick.

I am submitting this to the "Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013" event which I am hosting. You can link your recipes here.

I am also linking this to the Little Thumbs up "Cheese" event organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen from My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Alice from I Love.I Cook.I Bake. You can link your posts here.

If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! Thanks :)

Recipe: Smoked Salmon and Yogurt Cucumber Canapés

Canapés are great for parties, be it Christmas, New Year's Eve or Hogmanay. A canapé looks really pretty on the plate and can be eaten in one bite, making it easy for your guests to stand around, mingle and eat at the same time.

Smoked salmon and cucumber yogurt salad canapés

The technical composition of a canapé consists of a base (e.g., bread, pancake or cracker), a spread, a main item, and a garnish. When we were at Jaya Grocer, we were pleasantly surprised to see Scottish smoked salmon in the fish (chiller section) department. This is our first time coming across Scottish ones, as other supermarkets usually stock Norwegian variant. And Scottish smoked salmon is my favorite of all!

It is common to see smoked salmon and cream cheese canapes, but I thought of making a lighter version using natural yogurt. The canapé crackers are nice and crunchy, topped with the cucumber yogurt slices, delicious slivers of Scottish whisky smoked salmon and dill. This is easy to put together, looks fantastic on the plate and makes great finger food. 

I sure would love to stand next to a plate of these canapes and help myself to as much as I can!

Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Yogurt Canapes
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes 30-35

Ingredients
150g Scottish smoked salmon

1 pack (125g) water cracker canape 

Dill, to garnish

For the cucumber yogurt
1 Japanese cucumber, finely sliced
100g natural yogurt
1/4 lemon, juice only
1/2 shallot, finely chopped
A handful fresh dill, finely chopped
Salt, to taste

1. Place yogurt, lemon juice, and shallot in a bowl and mix well. Season with salt, then add the dill and cucumber and mix until well combined. Set aside.

2. Arrange canape crackers on a serving plate, then top with 3-4 slices of cucumber yogurt salad (from Step 1), and a sliver of smoked salmon. Garnish with fresh dill, before serving.

I am submitting this to the "Baby Sumo's Christmas Recipes Collection 2013" event which I am hosting. You can link your recipes here.


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! Thanks :)

Recipe: Thai appetizer, Galloping Horses (Ma Haw ม้าห้อ)

Ma haw or ma hor ม้าห้อ, literally translated to Galloping Horses is a popular Thai appetizer and is said to be named in honour of King Rama VII's excellent horsemanship. The sweet and sticky caramelised minced pork is topped on segments of fresh pineapple or tangerine and garnished with a coriander leaf and thinly sliced red chilli.

Galloping Horses

It is great as finger food at parties, as you can just lift a piece off the plate and pop the bite-size hors d'oeuvres into the mouth. At our bloggers gathering a few months ago, this was what I made. I cooked the pork at home, and assembled it at the party.

I particular like how attractive and colorful it looks on the plate - a multitude of colours from the pork, pineapple, coriander and chilli. In Thai cuisine, a balance of flavours (sweet,sour, salty and spicy) is important and this dish definitely delivers. Use good-quality pineapple (not overly ripe which is both sweet and slightly tart in taste) for this dish to shine. The minced pork plus peanuts contributes to the sweet and salty element and the chillies is added for the spicy factor.

Beautiful colours, and lots of different textures and tastes

Galloping Horses  (Ma Haw ม้าห้อ)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from A Little Taste of Thailand
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Makes 25

Ingredients
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
225g minced (ground) pork
2 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp palm sugar (gula melaka)
1 spring onion (white parts only), finely sliced
1/2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
25g unsalted cooked peanuts, skin removed and roughly ground
A pinch of ground white pepper
1 pineapple

To garnish
20 coriander leaves
1 red chilli, very finely sliced

1. Peel the pineapple, then cut into rounds with 1.5cm thickness. Cut each round into quarters - cut off the core and discard as it can be tough. You should get about 25 pieces of pineapple.

2. Heat oil in a wok over medium high heat, then add the garlic and cook for 1 1/2 minutes, until lightly browned. Lower to medium heat, then add the minced pork and cook for a further 5-6 minutes, until the pork is cooked through and begins to brown slightly. Use your spatula to break up the meat until it has separated.

3. Add the light soy sauce, palm sugar, pepper, spring onions, chopped coriander, and crushed peanuts, and stir well. Cook for a further 4-5 minutes until the mixture is dry and sticky. Taste and season with more soy sauce, as required.

4. To serve, place pineapple segments on plate, then scoop a tablespoonful of cooked minced meat onto the segment. Garnish with a slice of chilli and coriander leaf each.

Note: If serving to children, omit the chilli.

All the dishes we had during our gathering. You can read more about each individual dish here.

*I am submitting this to Cook-Your-Books #6 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours and to Asian Food Fest #2 Oct 2013 : Thailand hosted by Lena from Frozen Wings.


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE me on Facebook! Thanks :)

Recipe: Chicken and Mushroom Vol-Au-Vents

Occasionally, Hubby would put in a request for me to make him something from his childhood/teenage years. One of the things he craved for was vol-au-vents, which he associates as a festive treat during Christmas/ New Year that his mum used to make for him. The original plan was to make these for Christmas canapes but I didn't have time since I had too many other things on the menu, so I made it for him on New Year's Day instead :)

Chicken and mushroom vol-au-vents

Traditionally, a vol-au-vent (French for "windblown" to describe its lightness) is a small hollow case of puff pastry made by cutting two circles in rolled out puff pastry, cutting a hole in one of them, then stacking the ring-shaped piece on top of the disc-shaped piece. However, while I was reading Delia Smith's recipe book, she talked about John Tovey's brilliant idea of simply baking small rounds of pastry then halving them and sandwiching them together with a filling. This way, the pastry are crispier and no pastry has to be scraped out and wasted. I like this idea, so this is what I did for my vol-au-vents.

Crispy and light with a rich, creamy filling

To make the sauce, I used a roux (butter and flour mix) to add richness to the sauce. For the filling, you can use mushrooms, prawns/shrimps, chicken breast, salmon, crabmeat, oysters or asparagus, but I chose to go for the classic chicken and mushrooms. For the puff pastry, I used ready-made puff pastry which I simply cut  using a 10-cm cookie cutter (you can also make smaller ones with 5-cm cutter if serving as canapes) and then baking in a hot oven for 8-10minutes.

The result - a flaky, crispy puff pastry with flavorful, rich and creamy filling - and Hubby had two of them :)

Vol-Au-Vents
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Great Tastes French
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 5

5 no. store-bought puff pastry (I used Kawan brand square puff pastry)

For the sauce and filling
40g butter
2 spring onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
375ml (1 1/2 cups) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper

200g grey oyster mushroom, sliced
150g chopped cooked chicken breast


1. Preheat oven to 200°C (with fan). Lightly grease a baking tray with butter. Cut a 10cm circle from each puff pastry sheet and place rounds on the tray.

2. Place in preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the pastry has risen and is golden brown and crisp. Cool on a wire rack.

3. To make the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the spring onion and stir for 2 minutes or until soft. Add the flour and stir for another 2 minutes, or lightly golden. Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth. Increase to medium heat and stir constantly for 4 minutes, or until the mixture boils and thickens. Season with salt and pepper. Remove and stir in filling of your choice.

4. The filling must be cooked separately. Simply place some olive oil in a large skillet and saute the mushrooms for 2-3 minutes over medium high heat. Season well. The chicken has been poached and chopped into small pieces. Add the cooked mushroom and chicken into the sauce.

5. To assemble, cut the puff pastry into half horizontally. Scoop sauce with filling onto the base and then top with the other pastry half. Serve immediately.

Note: Other fillings you can use are cooked prawns, crabmeat, oysters and steamed asparagus.

*I am submitting this to this month's Little Thumb's Up "mushroom" event hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.


If you enjoyed reading my posts, LIKE ME on Facebook. Appreciate it! :)

I cooked: Astronomical Canapes (Avocado, Tomato, Mushroom)

Have you planned your New Year's Eve menu yet? If you're planning to throw a party, these canapés will make a great addition. 

If you think the name of the canapés sounds a little bizarre, let me explain. This canapé was concocted during the Blogger MasterChef finals in mid October, whereby the mystery box ingredient turned out to be avocado. Most contestants were quite surprised with the mystery ingredient but since the finals was held in a shopping mall, it was not possible to give us meat or poultry or seafood to cook since there was no washing facilities at all during the cooking stage.

Anyway, back to the avocado. I wanted to make a creamy mushroom soup topped with an avocado quenelle, but they had no soup bowls!!! So I had to improvise with the ingredients I have taken, and decided to make a simple canapé.  What I like most about it is it's vibrant colour, so I think this will look quite pretty on the dinner table. It is also light tasting with a nice tang from the lime. 

Since the Blogger MasterChef contest was run by Astro and Nuffnang, I decided to call it Astro-nomical Canapés when I was asked to present my dish to the judges. Do you like the name? :)

Astronomical Canapés

Canapé of Avocado, Tomato and Sauteed mushrooms
Preparation time: 25-30 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes


Ingredients
100g white button mushrooms and Swiss mushrooms, diced
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 ripe avocado
2 limes
1 tomato, diced
4-5 tbsp UHT cream
Salt and pepper
1 pack canape water cracker

1. To remove flesh from avocado, cut half, remove seed and then scoop out flesh using spoon. Avocado browns quickly when exposed to air, so add the juice of 1 lime to it. Put the avocado and cream in a blender and blend to a puree, season with salt and leave aside.

Other ingredients I took (thinking I was making a soup)

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Cook the onions for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes. Add half the parsley, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

3. For the tomatoes,  place the diced tomatoes in a bowl and add the juice of one lime and the remaining parsley. Season with salt and pepper.

4. To assemble, first put a generous amount of avocado cream, followed by the tomatoes and finally mushroom on top.

Not much cooking involved, but it sure makes a pretty dish.

Something you can prepare in a jiffy for a party you are throwing.

*Did not have a scale during the competition, so all ingredients are estimated. 

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 10 October 2012.