Watermelon and Curry Feta Cheese Salad
INGREDIENTS
120g corn oil
3 stalks curry leaves
15g Waugh’s curry powder*
200g feta cheese, drained
1 small red watermelon
1 small yellow watermelon
1 red capsicum
1 green capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
50g pitted black olives
4 shallots, sliced and soaked in cold water
10 stalks chives, cut into 4cm pieces
DIRECTIONS
1 To make the curry-flavoured oil, warm the corn oil in a pot over medium heat and fry the curry leaves for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Mix in the curry powder, remove from heat and cool.
2 Toss the feta cheese in the curry-flavoured oil and chill overnight.
3 Cut the watermelons into 3cm cubes and the capsicums into 1cm cubes.
4 To serve, mix the watermelons, capsicums and black olives together, and garnish with shallots, chives and flavoured feta cheese.
*This brand of curry powder is most suitable as it does not have the raw flavour that others do. Available at grocery stores in Golden Mile Complex in Singapore.
Brandy-rubbed Roasted Beef Ribeye
INGREDIENTS
2kg beef ribeye
100ml olive oil
10 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
15 sprigs thyme
5 sprigs rosemary
300ml brandy, cognac or whisky
Sea salt, to taste
DIRECTIONS
1 Remove any sinew from the ribeye using a small knife. Rub the olive oil evenly over it. Sear it in a hot pan for 1min on each side.
2 Place the garlic, thyme and rosemary on the ribeye, and chill overnight.
3 Before cooking the beef, remove the herbs and garlic and place them in a baking tray. Rub the ribeye all over with brandy.
4 Lay the ribeye on the herbs and roast in a preheated 155 deg C oven, for 2hr 15min for medium-rare doneness. For medium, cook it for another 25min.
5 Rest the ribeye at room temperature for 15min before slicing it. Sprinkle some sea salt over before serving.
Sides for the Roast Beef
• ROASTED NEW POTATOES
Cook 1 sprig rosemary, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 4 sprigs thyme and a dried bay leaf in 150ml olive oil in a pan over medium heat for 3-4min, until fragrant. Remove from heat, mix in a pinch of salt and pepper, and toss 1kg washed baby potatoes (all halved) in it. Transfer the potatoes onto a baking tray and roast (together with the beef) for 45min.
• BUTTER-BRAISED ROOT VEGETABLES
Cut 2 carrots, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 radish and 5 celery stalks into bite-sized pieces. Cook them in 70ml olive oil with 3 sprigs of Italian parsley in a pan over medium heat for 5min. Add 500ml water and a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook for 7min. Add 150g unsalted butter and cook for another 5min until the vegetables are tender. Garnish with Italian parsley leaves.
Layered Mulled Wine and Vanilla Jelly
INGREDIENTS
For the red wine jelly:
6 sheets leaf gelatin
1 litre cold water
750ml red wine
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
2 dried bay leaves
200g caster sugar
For the vanilla jelly:
2 sheets leaf gelatin
500ml cold water
200ml whipping cream
200ml fresh milk
1/2 vanilla pod*, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out
40g caster sugar
100g digestive biscuits, crumbled
10 blueberries
10 mint leaves
DIRECTIONS
1 To make the red wine jelly, soak the gelatin in cold water for 5min. Squeeze dry and set aside.
2 Bring the red wine to the boil and simmer for 5min over low heat. Add the cinnamon stick, star anise and bay leaves and cook for 5min.
3 Stir in the sugar and softened gelatin until dissolved. Set aside to cool.
4 Divide the red wine jelly mixture into 10 wine glasses and chill for 6 hours.
5 To make the vanilla jelly, soften the gelatin in cold water for 5min. Squeeze dry and set aside.
6 Mix the whipping cream, milk, vanilla seeds and sugar in a pot and cook over low heat for 5min. Stir in the softened gelatin until dissolved. Set aside to cool.
7 Remove the red wine jelly from the fridge and bring it to room temperature. Pour the cooled vanilla jelly mixture over the red wine jelly (both should be at room temperature so that the red wine jelly does not melt when topped with the vanilla jelly mixture). Chill for 6 hours.
8 Garnish with digestive biscuits, blueberries and mint leaves.
This article was originally published in Simply Her December 2013.
