December 2004

[ Home ] [ Up ] Beyond the kitchen		December 2004

		It is quite bizarre to see pine mushrooms (above) here, I think they grow on pine plantations though I'm not sure if this was accidental or introduced. You would have thought not the way these Aussies are rightly paranoid about biological pests. They have been stung in the past, hum. I think I made a creamy sauce with them to have with lamb early last year, but I found them a bit to dominating and they have quite a firm texture. This time I made a risotto with them which worked really well. I must look up some authentic recipes, I have a very old fashioned recipe book from Eastern Spain where they are found in abundance, but that is on the other side of the planet in a loft.

Heaven		Wagyu beef is a mighty fine thing, as such deserves to be appreciated in its cru state, so I sliced some to have with soy sauce and wasabi- sashimi style. Then a quick fry to have with some gently fried onion slices and proper grated horeradish. Woodland Cab Sauv 2003- one of the most interesting (ie Bordeaux like)l and good value Aussie reds yet, give me more!!
Salentino		Simon H's ragu is becoming one of the most cooked items and has been done with a combination of meats and livers, venison possibly being the finest. This effort actually followed the recipe by using minced veal and chicken livers. I do like parsley and prefer it slightly cooked so I throw a load in with the boiling pasta, just before serving. Piles of parmesan and omit the cream - just too much man!! First serving we had was with pappardelle but the second with 'sfoglia di trito' (postage stamp sized dry pasta) was supreme. Leaving the ragu to mature a day also helps I think.
		A Korean/ Japanese inspired lunch with a rolled omelette with salmon XO sauce, buckwheat noodles with green beans and red bean curd and for utter bizarreness, mountain fern which I picked up from the local Korean. And it really is fern, coming in dried form. Instructions were to boil and serve with sesame oil which we did. It certainly was pretty resilient but not unsurprisingly, it did have a rather unique arome. Might be more palatable as part of a dish rather than the raisen d'etre.
		The note I have for this meal is a little cryptic, I think it was a Shona meal from Claudia Roden. I have written- mince/lentils/rice/ caram onions/ cinammon/ cucumber/ yoghurt, mint/ garlic. It was very nice.
		Letherjacket is a very flavourful fish with a pleasing texture and bizarre anatomical array of muscle fibres, a bit like John Dory. They are always sold flayed and beheaded due to the truism of their name. I would like to get one whole though to have a go. They are excellent gently fried on the bbq plate with a bit of oil, their juices producing a fine golden crust. This time we served them with puy type lentils mixed with chopped and softened fennel, and lettuce.
		Lamb chops and oregano, beans and potatoes.
		A fish called Coogee may have been mentioned before for their use of potatoes to make chips, and they must also be applauded for igniting enthusiasm in octopus which I am finding to be one of the most versatile seafoods thanks to it's distinctive flavour and firm texture. I marinated this sheila in a Thai chili/ holy basil bottled sauce and bbq'd on a highish flame to get some smoking oil flame flavour from the oily sauce. To accompany, fine beans with prawn/ soy paste (another jar effort), cooked lettuce with rice vinegar and rice. Note the avoidance of the term 'wilted' there which is just one of those irritating menuspeak phrases. All very delish and washed down with beer since the marinade was pretty fiery. Aubergine in picture was left to soak up some olive oil for a few days and accompanied a salad of some description.
		I have totally forgotten what we did with these red rock cod, but they were exceptionally pretty.
		The confit duck I made a while back was released from its' fatty suspended animation, using the fat to make rosti potatoes which are a doddle with my razor sharp 'Microplane' grater. A brief fry on a low heat of the confit legs just to warm them through, and there we go, an emergency cupboard meal success.
Christmas Aussie style.		Smoked salmon and salmon caviar with sourdough and salad washed down with Croser sparkling wine for starters. I got hold of some dry aged rib eye fillets from Vics Meats, a massive meat wholesale supplier to many 'hatted' Sydney eateries. I really need to get back there as they list calf sweetbreads amongst other meaty delights. Anyway, I put a piece of sage in each side of the steaks, which were a good inch thick, and weighing in at 400g each- apologies for mixing imperial and metric. As you can see, I went a bit 'restaurant', unable to restrain a criss crossing grill pattern on the bbq. I steamed some choi sum with fresh shitake and some yellow chives, and rested the beef on this to let the juices flow onto the pile. Wonderful chunky chips as shown, probably pink eye as they seem to produce fantastic chips repeatedly.