Continuing with my love-affair with scallops, I decided to try crumbing and frying them. Brilliant stuff. To mix it up a bit I made some squid tubes too.


Squid Tubes and Crumbled Scallops - Serves 2
10 Scallops
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup of flour
¾ cup of breadcrumbs
1 squid tube
1 tablespoon of sumac
Sunflower oil for frying
Mustard, mayonnaise or tartar sauce to serve
Salad leaves


In three separate bowls, place the flour, egg and breadcrumbs. One at a time, roll a scallop in the flour then dip in the egg. Let the excess drip off then roll in the bread crumbs. Dip the crumbed scallop back in the egg then the breadcrumbs again. Set aside. Repeat for the remaining scallops.

For the squid, make incisions diagonally across the flesh being careful not to cut al the way through.

Fry the lot of it. The squid for 20 seconds and the scallops for about 45 seconds or until the crumbs are golden.

Serve on salad leaves with your choice of condiment.

Tags:Scallops, Squid, Calamari, Frying, Mustard, Herbs, Sumac, mayonnaise

I had a craving for rice over the past few days for some reason so with a quick(ish) stop at David Jones Food Hall I picked up some saffron, fish stock and some scallops. I had to make a second stop on the way home to find the fresh peas.

I’ve made saffron risotto a couple of times before but I’ve never been satisfied with the yellowness of the end result. In magazines and on TV it’s always almost fluorescent yellow but today it seemed to come out just about right. I guess I used twice as much saffron as usual and let it steep into the stock before I cooked it into the rice.

Fresh Pea and Saffron Risotto with Scallops cooked with Pancetta

Saffron and Pea Risotto with Pancetta Scallops - Serves 2
2 liters of fish stock (or vegetable)
1 teaspoon of saffron threads
½ white onion, diced
1 Tablespoon of butter
1 cup of arborio rice
½ cup of fresh peas
2 rashers of pancetta (or bacon)
10 scallops (or prawns, lobster etc)

Bring the stock and saffron threads to simmering point. Fry the onion in the butter until it’s translucent and add the rice. Fry until the rice has turned white and one ladle at a time add the stock and stir until the stock has been absorbed. Continue until ¾ of the stock has been used and the rice has begun to soften.

In a separate pan, fry the pancetta until crisp and the fat has rendered, do not discard the fat from the pan. Dice the pancetta and add that along with the peas into the risotto. Continue adding the stock until the risotto is cooked through.

In the same pan as the pancetta was fried, add the scallops and fry for one minute each side or until the surface is caramelized and the flesh has turned opaque.

Pile the risotto on a plate and scatter with the scallops, or if you’re feeling a little wanky, shape the risotto in a ring then arrange the scallops around the edge.

Tags:Vegetables, Scallops, Risotto, Rice, Arborio, Fish Stock, Recipe, Stock, Peas, Pancetta, Saffron

I said I’d go back to Varga Bar to try their food menu and today was the day, or at least I thought it was. It was time for brunch, around 1030, 11 and I wanted a bit of breakfast, salmon eggs benedict to be exact but they were out of smoked salmon. Okay fine, I’ll just have ham. Sorry, out of that too? Not to worry, I can understand how difficult it is to find either of those two things in Newtown. The Deli is all of 2 minutes walk away, not to mention all of the other delicatessens and heck, even the IGA on King Street has both.

I ended up with a sandwich. Luckily it was tasty but given it was a bacon sandwich ($10), a little light on the bacon.

Bacon, Avocado, Tomato and Lettuce on Sourdough @ Varga Bar

Tags:Newtown, Bacon, Sandwich, Avocado, Review, Café

I had to go back to Sydney early from my New Zealand trip so I can sit an exam and since I hadn’t had any luck finding the quite space I needed to read the text books I’d lugged around with me thus far I booked myself two days in Harbour View room at the Hilton Auckland (I got a good deal at wotif). The hotel itself is smaller than I thought and felt cramped every time I walked through the lobby but the rest of the hotel is quite spacious. The room I was in had a very large marble bathroom with separate bath and shower, the rest of the room contained a king size bed, 32” LCD TV and DVD player and a desk. Then there was the balcony - the same size as the room itself! The only complaint with it is that even though there are double sliding doors opening on to it, there was a concrete pillar in the middle of them making getting outside a little awkward and blocked the view from inside.

I hadn’t had breakfast that morning so once I settled into the room, opened all the draws and flicked all the light switches I had a look at the room service menu. There was all of the standard fare you get at the Hilton plus the specialised items from the hotels restaurant. I ordered the Nasi Goreng, just a light meal. Presented well, the rice moulded in a bowl and turned out into the plate with a fried egg across the top, tomato and cucumber slices fanned around the edge and individual bowls of chili paste, soy and dried fish so they could all be added to taste, a single large prawn cracker and three small chicken satay skewers to the side. Flavour wise it was more subtle than I’m used to, all of the flavours were balanced so it was a clearly deliberate choice and it certainly wasn’t bland per se but I could see a lot of people thinking it was.

The second night I stayed I went to White, the hotel’s restaurant with Italian chef Cristiano De Martin running the show. You can see his European training and years of dedicated practice in the way every dish was executed, starting with the produce then preparation and cooking then finally the presentation. De Martin’s dedication to his food extends to joint venture called Homegrown with NZ primary producers to source the best ingredients. I can’t see any losers here, especially as I get presented with my first course.

Starting off with Heart of the Desert saffron infused carrot soup with parsley foam it’s not surprising De Martin highlights one of his Homegrown partners in Heart of the Desert saffron. Who knew that NZ can grow it given 90% of the world production is from Iran? The soup itself was good blending the more complex earthier kiwi saffron standing up against fresh sweet carrots. The parsley foam was wispy and delicate adding a level of texture and evening out the parsley flavour so that no mouthful could ever be overpowed with a herb than can taste like grass if you get a mouthful of it unexpectedly.

Contrasting the soup’s delicate flavour profile is the Northland kingfish carpaccio, spiced shallots with citrus and sesame dressing and mini coriander leaves hitting you with an incredible burst starting out with the lime that is made palatable with the shallots, coriander and sesame on the finish. Without any one of these the dish wouldn’t balance but here all of the flavours are inline leaving you with the amazingly fresh kingfish carpaccio. The mouthfeel of the slightly oily kingfish sliced paper thin and served raw as it melds itself with the rest of the flavours creating one of those moments you sit up and pay attention to what you’re eating.

I love duck and I eat it quite often but until now I hadn’t actually had the chance to make or try tea smoked duck. I made tea smoked snapper a few weeks ago as a trial before I give it ago on duck. Now I’ve got a gold standard to aim for. A salad of tea smoked duck resting on crisp filo pastry, pistachio, celery and grapes with a blueberry and riesling verjus dressing was a familiar yet different taste. Smoking the duck adds a soft undertone to each bite that while you can tell it is there, at no point does it distract you from the duck itself or any other ingredient. Pistachio as a nut has an odd flavour that wouldn’t have worked if the duck wasn’t smoked. A lesser chef would have either used hazelnut that I think would have enhanced the smoke and overpowered the rest of the salad or blanched almods simply for texture. The filo pastry was disappointing, it seemed more like a layer of cardboard where I was expecting the salad to be perched on top of individual layers of delicate filo. Did you notice something missing in the picture? When I was served the dish I thought it was odd but there isn’t a black/purple drizzle across the top. I’m not sure how they did it, but blueberry skin wasn’t in the ingredient list for the dressing so it’s is perfectly clear. The two black half circles are grapes.

Scallops are tender pillows of shellfish that have a sweeter meat than crayfish. Their intense flavour, despite that they’re physically delicate, means they can carry other strong flavours and De Martin picked almost a surf and turf with Spirits Bay scallops seared with crispy pancetta, apple pureé and a snow pea salad with cabernet sauvignon vinegar glaze. Even before the plate lands you can smell the pancetta and the bacon instinct kicks in and your nose is in the air trying to breathe it all in. The pancetta releases so much of it’s flavour as it’s friend in the pan next to the scallops that they seem to soak it up like a sponge. The drizzle of glaze on the plate was incredibly intense and perfect for cutting through the pancetta’s fat so you can reclaim the scallop’s individuality.

The Assistant Manager (who did an amazing job all night) disagreed with the chef on his choice of wine for a number of dishes and I either saw her point or agreed completely. This time I only saw her point. She gave me some of the listed wine, a Cloudy Bay ‘08 Sauvignon Blanc, and the wine she thought was best, a Brancott ‘07 Sauvignon Blanc, both from the Malborough. I’m sorry to say I wouldn’t have said either were a perfect match but then I can’t say what would have been either. The Cloudy Bay was good at balancing the glaze and pancetta but destroyed the apple and scallop where as the Brancott was obliterated by the fat. Given the focus of this dish was scallops, not pancetta I’d have erred on the side of caution and taken the Bancott as the manager suggested.

A Kaffir Lime sorbet broke the meal. It tasted like the only possible way you could have that much lime flavour in a that glass was if someone froze and blended the lime itself. It had such a fresh taste to it, probably enhanced by the fact it was frozen, but it could have easily been the smell of a fresh picked lime. My guess is it was probably oil from the skin being sprayed in to and incorporated with the mix.






The headline of the show for an international hotel in NZ was of course the Hawke’s Bay lamb loin roasted with garden herbs, parsnip créme and crisps, manuka smoked olives, lemon and Te Arai Extra Virgin emulsion. The lamb was cooked a touch longer than I’d have liked but within tolerances for medium-rare so it did benefit from the olive oil and parsnip mash for moistness. That’s not to say it wasn’t full of flavour; I’d say the kiwi’s have made a good go at it. Infact given the better farming and grazing weather in NZ for the past few years, their lambs might just be better than the Australians. For now. Picking up some of the smoked olives with the lamb made for a nice way to extend the otherwise limited range of flavours on the plate, the parsnips and olive oil seemed to take on a new life. Half way through I’d ran out and wished there were more, olives, not parsnip.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the names of the two cheeses served on this course but they seemed along the lines of a mature cheddar and a firmer white mould cheese along the lines of a costello perhaps? As I was dining alone, I think I received a hastily cut down portion. There was just simply not enough cheese to try all of the condiments with at least one cheese, there weren’t even enough wafers. Still, it was nice for a course designed to transition your palette from red meat to dessert.




Of course, at the end of any meal you can’t go past dessert and what a dessert. The menu called for a chef’s selection and I don’t think there was anything left he hadn’t selected. When this course came up I was offered an extra glass of wine because there had been ‘an issue’ in the kitchen and I would have to wait an extra 10 minutes or so. What I think it was is that they couldn’t figure out how to present a dessert platter that’s designed for two people to a single person when most of the items are either slivers anyway or single units. Half a scoop of ice-cream anyone? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if there were two people that I would have been disappointed with the portion size, there are four separate desserts for heavens sake but to cut them down further would have been unsightly. Which is why I got a dessert platter for two! It goes without saying that every single one of these desserts were delicious and flavour packed. No surprises in the taste, they were almost concentrated in their own flavour. So clockwise from the back we’ve got an apple galette topped with vanilla ice cream, vanilla panna-cotta with raspberry compote, lemon cheesecake, dark chocolate hazelnut torte with a scoop of hazelnut ice-cream.


I ordered an espresso to go with the petit four which was basically a sphere of pear and cream that finished the meal as I sat and waited for it to move itself below my centre of gravity and chatted to an Australian couple that also had the degustation whom asked me how I enjoyed it and gave them my Red Whisk business card so they can come and look at the pictures. My sincerest apologies have to go to them for the delay in posting this article.

All in all, I really quite enjoyed visiting (and not as their guest, this was fully funded by The Red Whisk). Next time I visit Auckland I’m going to have to stay at the Hilton again. As far as international standards go the Hilton here is above the average. Sure there are some things that could be done better but they’re probably not going to be picked up or worried over by your average consumer. As for the restaurant, the service of the assistant manager scored herself a very generous tip for her friendly yet professional service keeping the person dining alone who didn’t bring a book to read company, her generosity in pouring wine and offering not only and alternative to the listed wines, but both!



Hilton Auckland and White Restaurant
Princess Wharf. 147 Quay Street
Auckland. 1010
NEW ZEALAND

Tags:Degustation, Hilton, Auckland, New Zealand, Review, Restaurant, Wine, Fish, Soup, Scallops, Duck, Dessert

The point of the trip to New Zealand this year was to celebrate my mother's 50th birthday, so while my Aunts little monkeys were at school we took a trip out to one of NZ's top rated wineries, Mills Reef, in the Bay of Plenty region not far from Tauranga in the town of Bethlehem.

Mills Reef is hardly a stable but if the attitude of the staff on the restaurant is anything to go by then jebus himself was born here and it was our privilege to be on sacred ground but more on that in a minute. Going along Moffat Road and seeing the grounds appear before you is impressive with manicured lawns and rows of trees all leading up to the main building and it's own formal gardens but this is a working site. All of the processing, bottling and distribution happen here even though all of the grapes are bought and shipped from the not so far away Hawks Bay.

As you walk up from the car park the first door on the left is the tasting room so we went there first. As a tip for those visiting a winery with it's own restaurant, here's a good place to try a sip of a few things before you try and match them to your lunch and give you a chance to mull over which bottles you pick up.

Mills Reef Winery, 143 Moffat Road, Bethlahem New Zealand

In the tasting room we met Ken, the cellar manager who ever so patiently walked my family through not only their range but the tasting process (lightest and brightest to heaviest and darkest). From what I could tell all of the prices for the wine were quite reasonable where as the souvenirs had souvenir prices.

After a few uhms and ahs we took a price list and headed for the empty restaurant. There was a choice of the outdoor terrace or inside a dining/function room. The enormous main dining room was having the air-conditioning replaced before summer. Not to worry because ir was spring after all and we chose a table on the terrace in the shade. Just like everyone else did but being outside the noise wasn't an issue and the tables were well spaced anyway. After the stop-off in the tasting room I picked my entrée and main based on their recommended wines and everyone else chose the recommended glass. I wanted to see how they stood up to good quality food and thankfully what came out of the kitchen was great. Luckily I was really only interest in their red wine because the restaurants fish order hadn't arrived to meet the demand of their predominantly fish based menu.

Going around the table my mother had their seafood trio and the Pinot Gris, a slight alteration due to the lack of fish she had a king prawn, scallops and a piece of salmon; my brother had the oysters and my aunt had the bread and dukka which surprised me. For such a simple sounding entrée the chef added a bit of flair throwing in a couple of different types of cibatta and more than just a simple dukka, there was some great avocado oil, tapenade and homemade pesto too. I had the chicken liver paté with truffles crostini and the Cab Melot, or at least that's what I ordered. Instead I got garlic crostini that worked very well and I wouldn't have had any complaints if only I hadn't ordered truffles. That and if I didn't have to wait 10 minutes and actually need to get up from by seat, walk through a construction site and find the wait staff and ask them for our wine. Even though there were a few people in the restaurant by that stage I find it hard to believe a winery restaurant forgot to bring the wine.


Seafood Trio - Prawn, Salmon and Scallop


Cibatta with Dukka, Avocado Oil, Tapenade and Pesto


Chicken Liver and Cognac Paté and Fig Jam with Garlic Crostini

Main course ran smoother, Mum had the strawberry and asparagus salad with Kaimai Brie and a glass of the Sav Blanc which was tasty and exploration in vegetarian texture more than flavour, my brother had two giant lamb shanks that were cut above the knee and were so tender the meat would have literally fallen off the bone if he'd picked it up washed down with the Cab Sav. The meat was good quality lamb but seemed a little bland on it's own and relied in the jus to carry it. Mind you I only picked at his leftovers, so the most of the meat could have been fine. My Aunts Cajun chicken Caesar salad was generous, well seasoned. I had the lamb fillet that was cooked to a perfect pink with a blue cheese and pear salad with a walderberry jus, much like my favourite duck salad. The lamb itself seemed under seasoned but balanced out with some cracked pepper and the jus. The Merlot Malbec was a perfect match.


Asparagus, Strawberry, Avocado and Kaimai Brie


Warm Lamb Fillet, Watercress and Baby Spinach Salad with Pear, Cashew, Kikorangi Blue and Walderberry Syrup


Lamb Shanks Braised with Wholegrain Mustard on Green Pea and Potato Mash

Dessert. Only mother and I had dessert, her with the mandarin and cinnamon spring rolls which looked delicious and I had the 'ode to the lemon' which was a set of three lemon desserts starting with a lemon curd in a bitter chocolate case the size of a patty-pan, a lemon cremé brûlée in an espresso cup and a scoop of lemon ice cream in a parfait glass. All of which matched brilliantly in their own way to the riesling ice wine. If only it was delivered with the course. As the waitress walked off I called out "um, and our wine?" She flicked her nose up and walked off in acknowledgement. I waited. I waited. Again I got up and asked for my wine yet again. The excuse was they were waiting for the others coffee to be made before they bought out all of the drinks. Pity my ice cream had melted and my crem brule was cold by the time it arrived.

The location, food and wine at Mills Reef are nothing to complain about but the attitude and service of the restaurant wait staff really left more a lot to be desired.


Nectarine and Honey Spring Rolls rolled in Cinnamon Sugar served with Blueberry Syrup and Vanilla Ice Cream


Burnt Lemon Curd, Lemon Crem Brule and Lemon Ice Cream

Tags:Salad, Chicken, Lamb, Lamb Shanks, Paté, Prawns, Scallops, Lemon, Ice Cream, New Zealand, Wine, Review, Restaurant, Travel

Saturday in Sydney was a beautifully sunny day and I got to spend it all locked in a room with out windows doing my day job. So as the sun was setting I wandered across the harbour bridge and off to David Jones. After wandering around a while I settled on a snapper and a bottle of champagne (or two).

Once I got home though, I couldn’t really be bothered doing anything except drink the champagne. Sunday night I still wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with the snapper so I decided to tea smoke it and make a large single serve vol au vent. It was surprisingly easy and tasted pretty damn good. Much better than those vol au vents your mum used to make at dinner parties in the 80’s and early 90’s!

Smoked snapper vol au vent

Smoked Snapper Vol Au Vents - Serves 2
1 whole fresh snapper
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of cardamom pods (crushed)
1 fresh bay leaf
1 cup sugar
1 cup of salt
1 cup of white rice
1 cup of black tea
1 sheet of short crust pastry
1 cup of stock (I used rabbit, but vegetable, chicken or fish would be ok)
1 tablespoon of corn flour
1 tablespoon of fresh cut parsley

Place the snapper, pepper, cardamom, bay leaf and half of the salt and sugar in a plastic container and cover with water. Leave for two hours (6 in the fridge). Take the fish out and let it air dry for a while or pat it dry with some paper towel.

Line a roasting tin that you have a rack and a lid with foil. Mix the rest of the salt and sugar with the rice and tea and pour evenly into the foil. Place the tin over a low heat (preferably with a simmer mat) and heat until it starts to smoke. Place the fish on the rack, the rack on the rice and the lid on the tin (get all that? Good). Leave for an hour and turn the heat off but do not remove the lid.

Once the whole lot has cooled, take the lid off and start to flake the flesh off the snapper trying to keep the bones out of the mix.

Heat your oven to 180ºC and cut two circles out of the short crust pastry and rings out of the puff pastry, the same diameter as the short crust circles. Place the two pastry stacks on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry rings have risen.

Boil the stock and add the corn flour, whisking constantly until it has thickened. Add the fish and re-heat gently so to not break the fish up further. Stir through the parsley then taste for seasoning and then spoon into the vol au vent cases.

Tags:Smoked Salmon, Smoked, Snapper, Vol Au Vent, Fish, Review, David Jones

Okay, with out a doubt it’s time to eat better and I’d say this is a call out to anyone that knows me personally to keep me in check and make sure that I’m eating better than I usually do but if you know me I’ll probably just go fry some bacon and crack another beer. Saying that though - my saving grace as far as food goes is that I really like fish, so the more of that I can get the better, even if it just happens to be healthy. Sauvignon Blanc is just tasty grape juice, right?

Oh, and I really appologise for calling capsicum ‘red pepper’ but the name didn’t sound right otherwise.

Snapper with Red Pepper Sauce with Been and Pumpkin Salad

Snapper with Red Pepper Sauce with Been and Pumpkin Salad - Serves 4
2 red capsicums (peppers), sliced
½ a white onion, sliced
½ cup of white vinegar
½ cup of water
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons of dried oregano
500 grams of green beans, topped and tailed
250 grams of pumpkin
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced and seeded
100 grams of sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
1 tomato, sliced and seeded
2 teaspoons of sesame seeds
4 snapper fillets
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil

Put capsicum, onion, vinegar, garlic, water a couple of the sun-dried tomatoes and oregano in a saucepan and simmer on a very low heat for 15 minutes or so. When the capsicum is very soft, mix it up with a stick mixer until smooth. Keep the sauce warm until you’re ready to serve (it makes a great pizza sauce too).

Steam the pumpkin until just tender, remove and steam the beans until crisp. Mix in the remaining sun-dried tomatoes, sesame seeds and a little olive oil.

Heat a grill to a medium-low temp and season the fish with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil. When the grill is warm put the fish under and grill for about 15 minutes, until the fish is firm to touch but still moist.

Tags:Fish, Snapper, Pumpkin, Beans, Grill, Quick, Wine, W

Not really knowing what to call this whitebait fritter is really what I thought when I first saw this presented to my table at The Union in Newtown. Now this place is my local and I eat here reasonably regularly - infact I’m typing and posting this just minutes after I ate the meal, which in it’s own right feels a little too close to comic book man from The Simpsons logging on to the internet within moments to register his disgust for the new Itchy and Scratchy episode with Poochy.

I was expecting something a lot more like a pancake with little tiny fish heads sticking out perfectly crispy waiting for me to cunch. What I got was little brown deep fried sea-poops on a soggy salad. Although, the beetroot relish on top was just delicious. There are plenty of better whitebait fritter recipes out there.

What’s going on at The Union? This place used to be known for it’s top class pub food. The last time I ordered fish here it was obviously a frozen fish fillet because it was still hard and cold in the centre. Their regular menu is rock solid - I guess it must just be the specials.

Little brown sea-poos with beetroot relish

Food, 6/10 - Good but the standards are slipping
Service, 8/10 - Can’t complain here
Coffee, 0/10 - There is an espresso machine, but this is a pub. Have a beer
Value, 6.5/10 - Pricey for pub food but better than the competition
Location, 9/10 - Full of good intentioned locals

Tags:Newtown, Whitebait

Meeting John for dinner tonight I had a hankering for some seafood, nothing special mind, just a nice piece of salmon or some scallops, but when we ended up at Splash on King Street in Newtown we ended up going all out and picking the hot and cold platter for two (or even three). The rest of the menu wasn’t very inspiring, nothing you couldn’t find at every other seafood restaurant in Sydney.

Splash @ 226 King Street, Newtown

Now while the decor of the restaurant is a fairly dark but modern I can’t help but feel that this is a second home to those who work here with little touches making it feel more like someone’s living room - the framed boxing memorabilia coming from the eldest son and the bright sea-life painting coming from his mother insisting “these will look lovely.” The feel of being in someone else’s house is reinforced with the clumsy but well intentioned younger sister waitress, the always looking busy but not really older sister waitress, then there’s the eldest muscle bound pony-tailed brother who sits intimidatingly behind the bar only to rush off outside or to the kitchen every time his mobile phone beeps or rings. I always got the feeling that I was imposing being there and even more so when I asked for another drink.

At least the food was good quality with more than a substantial serving, three people or two hungrier people than us could have finished it with a bit more effort, we struggled to get through half of the a pile of chips, bbq baby octopus, pickled octopus, lightly battered and fried prawns, cold cooked prawns, fresh oysters, scallop mornay, smoked salmon and the whole crab. We didn’t even touch the salad.

Hot and Cold Seafood Plater for Two @ Splash Newtown

Food, 6.5/10 - Everything was there, but it wasn’t original by any means
Service, 5/10 - I felt like I was imposing on them being there, it seemed everyone had better things to do
Value, 7/10 - For what we got, the $100 bill was fair for quality seafood in Sydney
Location, 9/10 - Heart of King Street

Tags:Newtown, Seafood, European, Mediterranean, Cyprus

For my birthday my brother and his fiancé got me Kylie Kwong's "Simple Chinese Cooking". It's big, blue and designed for the coffee table with full page pictures of each recipe. It's not what I'd call a serious cookbook; it's really more about the pictures which is fine but I don't need to have a recipe for prawns with chili ginger and soy dressing, and chicken with chili ginger and soy dressing, pork with chili ginger and soy dressing... I also don't need to stir-fry or deep-fry everything!
Having said that, I made the whole garfish recipe last night and the dressing was delicious but could have used a little less oil (modified recipe below). It was tasty sure, but next time I'm going to try the dressing with less oil and another fish like sea bream or mahi-mahi that are suggested alternatives in the book. The garfish was a pain the arse to eat with lots of sharp little pin-bones.

Whole garfish with ginger, chili and soy dressing

Deep Fried Whole Garfish with Chili, Ginger and Soy Dressing
4 Whole garfish, cleaned and gutted
Flour for dusting
Peanut oil for deep frying
1 Long red chili, sliced thinly
2 Spring onions, sliced thinly
¼C Coriander leaves
1 knob of ginger, grated finely
2T Dark soy
2T Light soy

Heat the peanut oil in a wok until the surface is shimmering
Dust the garfish in the flour and shake off the excess
Place the chili, spring onion, coriander and ginger in a heat proof bowl and pour over a spoonful of the hot oil and stir. Add the soy sauces and stir to combine.

Slip the garfish into the hot oil, two at a time and cook until the flesh is firm and white, about 3 minutes. Place the first two garfish on a plate with paper towel and cook the remaining two. Don't be tempted to cook all four at the same time because the oil will cool down too much and the flour coating won't go crispy.

Serve with the garfish draped over a mound of rice and the dressing spooned over.

Tags:Fish, Seafood, Asian, Recipe, Kylie Kwong

At the top of the list of any visit to Perth, with out fail, is to head out to Fremantle for the day to wander through the [unfortunately small] markets and have lunch or dinner at one of the many top class restaurants. This trip, the family and I went to the Little Creatures brewery for a late lunch.

The brewery is housed inside one of the two boat sheds that make up their premises, the other houses the bar and restaurant with a giant glass wall separating the two so you can watch the brewers occasionally scuttle around checking valves and whatnot. It’s not a fascinating show if you ever even get to see someone, large modern brewery, even the smaller ones like Little Creatures are generally set-and-forget with only some monitoring of the brewing and fermenting. I was hoping for an ommpaloompa, but I guess they’re probably locked in cages to protect the public.

Little Creatures, Fremantle

It was a beautiful sunny day so we went through a couple of false starts to try and secure an outside table, having much more success than most. The back area is large and set to have the feel of your mate’s back yard, complete with bocce pit taking up some valuable real estate. Full credit has to go to management for not trying to squeeze in an extra 100 people and ruining a great atmosphere.

Inside are two levels of seating that seem to be able to fit hundreds of people with the ground level split with a large bar at the front and the open planned kitchen at the back, including the wood fired pizza oven that probably didn’t help to cool the inside of the warmer than outside shed. It was cooler outside in the sun.

We didn’t want a huge meal, just something to tide us over until dinner so we just ordered a plate of prawn skewers (a little over cooked) and a spicy sausage pizza that left a satisfying lip tingle for 15 minutes after you’d eaten it. For a wood fired pizza, I was a little disappointed but I still went back for another slice. I am glad they showed restraint in the toppings department and didn’t overload any of the pizzas on the menu.

Prawn Skewers @ Little Creatures, Fremantle

Spicy Sausage Pizza @ Little Creatures, Fremantle

We only had the pale ale to drink here and it was as nice as ever, and one of the better pale ales around. I saw the cider on the menu when we first sat down inside but completely forgot about it by the time we’d moved seats twice to try and get outside.

It was really nice sitting outside watching the well-behaved toddlers run around, a group of friends play a round of bocce and others clamber over the small stage that’s occasionally used for live bands so I’m glad we did shuffle around to get out there. The wait-staff were friendly and mostly professional. The best evidence of this was how the waiter and subsequently management dealt with a woman we’d pointed out to them who probably chose the wrong seat and should have waited to get an outside seat too…

Dignity. She Needs It

Tags:Restaurant, Beer, Prawns, Pizza, Perth

Tonight I made a quick and easy prawn curry for dinner, loosely based on Dinner Tonight's Curried Shrimp which in turn is from Martha Stewart. It was quite nice but turned out completely different to what I'd planned. The sauce was really more like a butter chicken sauce than anything. I also made up the spice blend and just used what I had at hand.

Steaming Hot Prawn Curry

Prawn Curry - Serves 4
1 teaspoon of Celery Seeds
1 teaspoon of whole Allspice
1 teaspoon of Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon of dry Curry Powder
1 Red Chilli, finely diced
2 Garlic Cloves, finely diced
1 Onion, sliced
2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste
2 Tomatoes, diced
Assorted Vegetables (I used carrot, golden squash and broccoli)
300mL of Sour Cream
500g of Green Prawns
Basmati Rice
Lime Wedge (optional)


Dry roast the spices in a large frying pan or wok until fragrant then grind in a mortar and pestle.

In the same frying pan, add a dash of oil and fry off the chili, garlic and onion until the onion is translucent. Add the spices and fry for a few minutes until you can smell them clearly. Add the tomato paste, vegetables and sour cream and simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Add the prawns and cook until pink but still tender.

Serve over basmati rice with a lime wedge on the side.

Tags:Curry, Seafood, Prawns, Vegetables, Rice

In an attempt to eat more vegetables and more lean protein I went for a seafood dish tonight, and one of my favorites at that, scallops. If you haven't had scallops before you don't know what you're missing. Tender discs of sweet flesh that just melts in your mouth. Go get some. Now. Don't worry. I'll wait.

I'll admit, tonight I cheated and bought the roast beetroot salad from David Jones, but it seems fairly simple to make. It just looks like carrots, beetroot and new potato all diced to bite sized chunks and roasted together in a foil jacket with a splash of either chicken stock, white wine or verjuice until tender (I guess 180°C for 20 minutes and check for tenderness). I really just got it for colour and texture contrast from the rest of the dish. Having served this with them I really think it needs the balance, it would have missed something with out it.

Curry Dusted Scallops with Baby Pea Puree - Serves 2
300g frozen baby peas
2 spring onions, sliced finely
Knob of butter
Squeeze of fresh lime juice
8 Sea Scallops without roe
2 teaspoons of curry powder
Salt & pepper to taste

Boil the peas in some lightly salted water until done and drain of almost all of the water. Add the spring onions, butter, salt and pepper and whiz in a blender or with a stick mixer until a rough puree is formed, taste and add lime juice enough to give the mix a slight sharp and fresh taste.

Mix the curry powder and salt together on a plate and roll all of the scallops in the mix until they're evenly coated and fry off in a hot pan with butter for 1 minute on each side.

Plate with a few spoonfuls of the pea puree on a plate, topped with the beetroot salad and finally the scallops.

Serve with a dry white wine such as the 2007 Vasse Felix Classic Dry White from the Margaret River I had. It's a very nice light white wine with a subtle passionfruit flavour.

Tags:Curry, Peas, Beetroot, Scallops, David Jones, Seafood, Recipe

Each night this week I'm going to be making a different recipe from the Nigella Express cookbook my brother got me for Christmas. It's a great book full of some great looking food, if a little heavy on the desserts. Given I'm trying to loose 15kg I'll have to say that's a bad thing because they look damn nice. There are some healthy ones too, including this Mirin-Glazed Salmon.

It only took 10 minutes to make from start to finish and was damn tasty! This is definitely going in the keeper list. Okay, I did make a couple of minor changes, I added some peas to the rice (edamame would have been better but it's hard to find here) plus I was out of Mirin so I used Sake instead, but it's all rice wine right? Right?



Mirin-Glazed Salmon - Serves 4

60mL Mirin
60mL Soy Sauce
50g Brown Sugar
4x 125g pieces of Salmon
2T rice vinegar
2 Spring Onions, sliced into long strips
Jasmine Rice

Mix the mirin, brown sugar and soy sauce in a shallow dish that will take all four pieces of the salmon, and marinate the salmon in it for 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second. Meanwhile heat a large non-stick frying pan on the hob.

Cook the salmon in the hot dry pan for 2 minutes and then turn the salmon over, add the marinade and cook for another 2 minutes.

Remove the salmon to whatever plate you're serving it on, add the rice vinegar to the hot pan and warm through.

Pour the dark, sweet salty glaze over the salmon and top with the spring onion strips. Serve with rice.

Tags:Recipe, Seafood, Nigella Lawson, Nigella, Nigella Express, Quick

Following on from the Christmas Prawn Fest I've been having over the past few days. Boxing Day has left me with 11 prawns that were begging to be eaten. Simple enough to prepare, bend their heads down so you can get to the vein running down their back, pull that out and shove a bamboo skewer up them, a quick heat of the bbq, four minutes each side (hopefully the picture will give you an idea just how big these things were), some lemon, cocktail sauce and we're done. They'd have been perfect for a prawn burger.

Tags:BBQ, Prawns, Burgers

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Christmas in Australia is not a roast turkey affair. Sure some nutters throw caution to the non-airconditioned wind and roast a giant turkey with all the trimmings (never again, not with out the air-conditioning anyway). The majority of antipodean Christmas fare tends to be seafood and cold meats like ham. Today alone 700 tonnes of seafood were sold at the Sydney Fish Markets.



I did manage to pick up 1 kg of green king prawns at the David Jones food hall. The first of these giant crustaceans (each were a good 7-8" head to tail) went to Jamie Oliver's crumbed prawn recipe from Cook with Jamie. Simply crumbed and oven baked for 10 minutes and served with sea salt and a drizzle of lemon. Delicious.

Tags:Prawns, Crumbed, Lemon, Summer, Recipe, David Jones

I’ve never been that keen on Thai food, mind you I’ve had limited exposure to it and what I have was probably not particularly authentic, however last night I had a craving for something spicy and with fish. After flicking through some recipes I came across a nice picture of what was titled a fish curry, although it looked much more like a soup so I made some changes to the recipe and came up with this.

On the whole it was nice, but lacked something. Monkey put his finger on it. More seafood. Prawns would have been ideal and some coriander for garnish. Next time…

Thai Fish Soup **

500mls Vegetable Stock
1 Cup of assorted chopped Asian themed vegetables (baby corn, bean sprouts, water chestnuts) – I used frozen packet vegetables
2tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
1tsp lemon grass, minced
1tsp ginger, minced
1tsp garlic, minced
Fish sauce, to taste
Palm sugar, to taste
300grams of salmon filet, cubed
300grams of green prawns, shelled and de-veined
Picked coriander leaves for garnish


Bring the vegetable stock to the boil, add the remainder of the ingredients except for the salmon and bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are almost ready.

Add the salmon and prawns and simmer for 5 minutes until both are pink. Serve in small bowls with coriander as garnish.


PS** Is it poor food-blog etiquette to post a recipe with alterations to the one you’ve actually cooked and posted a picture of? In this case, the addition of prawns and coriander.

Tags:Fish, Soup, Salmon, Prawns