Disingenuous Mountebank

Monkfish with zucchini two ways

2010-02-26T18:43:00.000+11:00

I'm working hard at ramping up the wankiness of my recipes - well, their titles, actually.

I went to the Vic Market at lunchtime today and picked up some gorgeous-looking snapper and monkfish.

I'm going to simply panfry it in butter and lemon, but since zucchini is so abundant at the moment, I'm going to serve the fish with steamed garlic zucchini, and I'm going to make a tartare sauce using last season's pickled zucchini instead of capers. Hopefully the sharpness of the pickle will provide the requisite saltiness and sourness to make the sauce work.

The final dish... mmm. Buttery.

Turkish Delight cupcakes

2010-02-08T22:31:00.001+11:00

This recipe is from the Women's Weekly 1000 Best Ever Recipes from AWW and although the book is organised very poorly, the recipes are - as always - foolproof.

Except for the presentation...

What the cupcakes were supposed to look like:

What they actually looked like, after I mangled them and followed the recipe only loosely...

Raw chilli (un-carne)

2010-02-08T20:29:00.001+11:00

I am using goneraw's Veggie Chili recipe tonight, and I have to say... not bad. It doesn't look that pretty (although it looks surprisingly like "real" chili). Obviously it doesn't have the same depth, the same slow cooked flavour and richness as the real thing - however, it's light, and healthy, and a lot less like a gazpacho than I had anticipated.

So thanks, goneraw!

Worst. Restaurant. Evah.

2010-02-06T17:50:00.000+11:00

Ebony Quill in Camberwell, in "The Well" centre. I've been there a few times and it was okay - but after today's effort I am blacklisting it forever. I urge anybody who reads this to do the same.

The food is crap and overpriced. I ordered a "Greek salad" which was 98% iceberg lettuce, roughly torn, with one cherry tomato, 2 slices of cucumber, 2 olives and a piece of cheese. It cost me $12.

More fool me for paying it, but crikey. Never again - EVER.

Ebony Quill - boycott it if you don't already.

Innocent Bystander pinot gris

2010-02-03T20:35:00.001+11:00

Usually, I prefer pinot grigio to gris, but this wine is not bad. I have to say, it was lovely with dinner but it was a bit sickly when I quaffed it alone.

That's more likely a reflection on me than on the wine though!

Interestingly, I tasted very strong honey and pear flavours, with less of the "nashi" flavour that was described. It was also quite creamy, although I didn't pick up on any jasmine or kaffir lime notes - the honeysuckle was definitely there though.

Quite delicious but definitely one for food.

Roasted chicken with quince paste and pancetta

2010-02-03T20:27:00.002+11:00

This is for you, P.

I first found this recipe aaaaages ago in a Donna Hay cookbook, belonging to a friend whose house and cats I was babysitting.

It might have been the cupboard ingredients book?

Anyhoo, it's simple and delicious. Chicken breasts, smeared with quince paste, wrapped in pancetta, then roasted on a bed of spring onions/baby leeks, oil and white wine.

It is pretty delish!

An experiment: raw sunflower seed pate

2010-01-27T21:47:00.001+11:00

Meh, is all i can say. It tatses like savoury peanut butter.

Ingredients:
sunflower seeds, soaked overnight in water
garlic, chopped
lemon juice
salt
tahini

Soak the seeds overnight, drain and then blitz everything together, adding hot water if it needs thinning. I have to say, it's nothing like pate. Or cheese. It was an experiment that wasn't worth repeating - why bother with substitutes? Just find something new...

Christine's tomato chicken

2010-01-21T22:37:00.001+11:00

Thank you to wonderful Christine, whose amazing blog provides me with all of the Chinese recipes I could ever wish for. Screw Ken Hom and his hot wok!

This dish is what Christine calls chicken in tomato sauce and it's my dinner for tonight.

First, the chicken is marinated in the standard seasonings - soy, rice wine, sesame oil, cornflour. Then you chop/slice/dice some fresh tomatoes (I used 2 big tomatoes and about 6 cherry tomatoes) and mince some garlic.

Fry the chicken, set aside. Fry the garlic, add the tomatoes, stir fry until soft. Then add the chicken back in, add a tablespoon of tomato sauce or tomato paste mixed with a half cup of water and a bit of sugar and stir it all about.

Add some thickening (1tsp cornflour with water/soy) and stir a bit more.

It was pretty amazing - thanks, Christine!

Silverbeet

2010-01-18T13:05:00.003+11:00

So, who knew that silver beet/rainbow chard could be so hardy? Everybody except me, I suspect.

After forcing my poor mother to create a gigantic organic veggie garden purely for my own gluttonous desires, I am now enjoying a "glut" (haha) of rainbow chard/silver beet.

Which is, contrary to my memories, quite delicious. I seem to remember it being tough and grainy, but instead, the leaves are silky smooth and the stalks are delicious, nutty and crisp.

I've been using it up in various ways over the last 3 weeks, but the most popular way has been to steam the leaves with a touch of nutmeg, and make a gratin of the stems.

It's a Stephanie Alexander recipe from her Cook's Companion book. Basically, you separate the leaves from the stems. You slice the stems up, blanch for 10 mins in boiling water, then drain and place in a gratin dish. You boil a cup of cream in a small saucepan, then turn the heat off and stir in 50-100g of cheese (I've tried it with blue cheese - the original recipe and with parmesan. I think I preferred the parmesan).

Top it with breadcrumbs and a spray of oil and bake for about 30 mins in a hot oven. It is delicious and nobody knows what it is until you tell them!

Peppered kangaroo fillet with white asparagus and raspberry vinegar

2009-11-25T21:44:00.001+11:00

It sounds poncy and a bit like it should have "hand-shot wild kangaroo" in its description but whatever.

Kanga fillets from safeway, white asparagus, lemon-scented olive oil, bashed out peppercorns and raspberry vinegar.

Do I need to elaborate?

OK just a bit. Well here are the raw ingredients - asparagus (white and green), roo fillet, crushed peppercorns

And voila! The finished dish...

Mornington Peninsula... so good

2009-11-14T05:55:00.001+11:00

I've been slack with the posting, but by the time I realised that my super reduced chicken stock would have been an awesome thing to record step by step - it was finished.

However, there is always the trusty old Mornington Peninsula trip to record - an orgy of wine buying and food eating over the cup day weekend!

S and I stayed at the Mornington on Tanti which I believe used to be a very dodgy TAB bar/pub.... but which has been renovated and while still containing a TAB bar, it was actually pretty nice (cheap, too, which was the main attraction!). Surprisingly enough, the pubgrub wasn't too bad.

L-R: S's sizzling barramundi, shared garlic bread, my chicken kiev

And the breakfast was even better, but I didn't take pictures of that. Disappointingly, the wine list was very short on MP wines, most of the available bottles coming from Yarra Valley or NZ (blergh).

We spent Monday night driving down there, had our lovely meal with a couple of bottles and then watched some television (Matt Preston... yum!) and generally had a girlie night.

The real fun was on Tuesday! First stop after breakfast: Foxey's Hangout, my favourite MP winery! The best sparkling white and pinot gris evah (well maybe not evah but definitely up there on my list, more for the whole experience than just the wines). Free coffee from one of the brother-owners, too (after we bought several hundred dollars worth of wine)

View of the vines at Foxey's

We did quite a few other wineries while we were down there and naturally the cheese shop - but the highlight, as always, was lunch at Pier 10. Not any kind of posh, high-end winery but really good value food and a lovely pinot grigio (and where S and I first learnt the difference between gris and grigio - even if the bloody yanks don't agree - hey, S?)

L-R: eye fillet with tomato onion relish and asparagus, confit duck legs and cheese platter

It was a great day and it felt like a whole weekend rather than just a minibreak! I wish I could afford to buy a house down there!

Girl crush

2009-10-27T17:53:00.001+11:00

I'm in love with Judi Dench.

That is all.

Sutter Home White Zinfandel

2009-10-26T22:56:00.001+11:00

The first thing to say about this wine is that it is pretty. So pretty. If it weren't wine, it would look perfect in a little girl's bedroom.

Like I said, it's pretty.

It also is very sweet - but surprisingly refreshing in its sweetness. It tastes of strawberries and cream and something else that goes with all roses, that I can't identify.

Of course I'm drinking it ironically, because otherwise I would be the ***wrong kind of white person***.

Thanks SH for bringing it back for me :)

PS the pictures are crap because I took them on my phone...

Weekend Herb Blogging - WHB #206

2009-10-25T00:55:00.001+11:00

I have chosen carrots for this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Yasmeen from Healthnut and with them I'm making gajar halwa, or carrot pudding.

Normally Indian sweets are just... well, sweet. This is not exactly an exception but it has a lot of flavour, from the sweetness and the texture of the carrots, the spicy cardamom and the caramelised milky cream.

It's the only Indian sweet I have ever tried to make, and this was my third attempt. The recipe comes from Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook.

It's not really complicated - fry off some coarsely grated carrots (about 500-600g) in some ghee until the liquid has evaporated, then quickly stir in milk powder, simple syrup and cream, and cook, stirring, until it forms a mass. Then just spread it in a tray and wait for it to solidify.

It ends up a bit like fudge - but a very lurid orange kind of fudge!

Ladbroke Grove Riesling 2005

2009-10-20T20:41:00.002+11:00

I asked my friend LB, whose fam owns a bottleo, for some recs for a semisweet riesling (see my quest).

Her Mummy recommended two wines, the first of which is the Ladbroke Grove 2005 Riesling. I have to say, it's pretty delicious. Pretty spot on, too, in terms of sweetness - it's not lolly water sweet like some of the wines I've tried, and it's not flinty and minerally like the typical Riesling.

It's very nicely balanced - it's certainly not a Gewurztraminer, there's no classical floral bouquet - but it does have a pretty "Riesling" kinda nose... in a good way!

Me likey... I should note, since my friend procured this for me, I have no idea what it retails for. Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure it's worth it.

Thanks LB and IK!

Patatas Bravas

2009-10-20T19:17:00.001+11:00

Tonight I'm making patatas bravas with seared tuna. I don't know why (well, I do for the tuna, but not for the patatas) but I liked the name and there are quite a lot of recipes floating around. I was disappointed to find out how much work there is supposed to be (peeling, parboiling, roasting the potatoes, them making the sauce, blending it, reheating it and mixing with the potatoes) but I simplified my chosen recipe quite a bit and I'm sure it is completely unrecognisable to any self respecting Spanish gourmand.

I used a recipe from the Taste website, only I just roasted the potatoes for longer instead of parboiling them. I also didn't bother too much with the pureeing of the sauce... meh. Lumpy tomatoes, who cares? It's not a soup.

So essentially, you roast the potatoes until they're golden and crispy. In the meantime you make a simple tomato sauce with onion, garlic, chilli, smoked paprika, oregano, white wine (I was out of cooking wine so I used verjuice) and diced tomatoes. Then you mix it all up and I served it with seared tuna (coated in a random spice mixture I had floating around).

Yum!

Shantaram... god help me

2009-10-15T00:04:00.001+11:00

UPDATE: Shantaram still sucks. I'm officially halfway through... I reached the sex scene, it was just as bad as I was lead to believe. Also, it sucks. Did I mention that yet?

I hope I can dedicate a couple of nights to it this week as well as my train reading, so that come Friday night at bookclub I am not a total cop out (I flaked out of the last book, too).

Sigh.

OK, so our next bookclub book is Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts (you know, the convicted armed robber who ruined people's lives by holding them up at gun point to support his heroin addiction, and who escaped from Pentridge and went on the lam for 8 years or so - it's all there on his website).

Now, as a disclaimer, I understand that this book is fiction - but I still feel slightly dirty and like I'm supporting or adding to the proceeds of crime.

All of which is irrelevant because in my personal opinion the book is BLAH. His prose is arrogant, egocentric, pretentious and try-hard. He seems to think he's some kind of philosopher and personally right now I'm finding it really difficult to make it through the "hero doctor rescues poor slum folk" section of the book.

I'm sitting tight because a friend just told me that the book includes a sex scene that's so bad it won a prize!

Yalumba Y series sangiovese rose

2009-10-14T18:04:00.003+11:00

Heh, so apparently according to Christian Lander (extrapolating his thoughts about white zinfandel to Australian rose), rose is for bogans, or the "wrong kind" of white person.

Now I generally consider that I'm pretty high up on his white person test (think indoor team sports, knowing what's best for poor people, facebook, postgraduate degrees in liberal arts, etc) but I want to strike back against the stigma of drinking pink wines.

I think (and I'm not alone) that most roses get a bad rap that they don't deserve. If you choose the right one, they're dry and citrus-y and savoury and go really nicely with food, especially in summer. I know it's not summer, but choosing season-appropriate wines has never really been my style.

Tonight, I'm trying Yalumba 'Y Series' sangiovese rose, which was a steal from a major wine retailer at less than $8.00. I'm serving it with a made-up recipe for white bean and chorizo stew.

It's not the best wine in the world - but then again, for less than ten bucks a bottle I'd be surprised if it was. I like it - it's mostly dry, it tastes "pink" but not sweet and it went beautifully with the stew. It was very light and crisp, and perfect for the extra bit of chilli and smoked paprika I added to punch up the flavours in the sausage.

Weekend Herb Blogging #205

2009-10-13T17:30:00.001+11:00

Lamb with peas and anchovies

Cinzia from Cindystar is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and I am using curly endive.

This is my very first foray into food blogging (erm, well, blogging at all, really) and my virgin WHB post - I hope I've done it right (veterans, feel free to leave suggestions for me if not).

I've chosen curly endive (or frisee) not because I particularly like its flavour (I find it bitter and I choke on the leaves if they're not chopped) but because of this recipe from Gourmet Traveller, which is amazingly delicious - and surprisingly, the wilted endive's bitterness adds a really nice edge to the sweet peas, salty anchovies and juicy, rich braised lamb.

Endive is (according to Wikipedia, the font of all online knowledge) a member of the daisy family and is closely related to chicory. Like any leafy green, it contains high levels of folate, vitamins A & K and fibre - this particular recipe is a favourite of mine because it's juicy and saucy and packed with protein and has 2 loads of veggies in it, which makes it almost a complete meal.

My next favourite ingredient - anchovies! (Yes the recipe only calls for a few and yes I added more...possibly the whole jar...yes I'm a glutton and a salt fiend but they dissolve into nothingness. I won't hear a word against the little salty fish). Oh - and yes, they do deserve their own picture.

Then the marjoram, garlic, onions and peas (I couldn't find oregano so I used fresh marjoram instead):

And, finally, the lamb.

The onions are fried for 8-10 mins until they soften (I like to get a bit of colour on them, but not too much), then the garlic and anchovies are added until the garlic is aromatic and the anchovies melt. Then it's in with the lamb and the stock and it cooks slowly for 2.5 hours or so. About 5 minutes before serving, add the peas and the herbs. Turn off the heat when the peas are done and add the endive, stirring until it wilts.

Corn fritters

2009-10-12T19:36:00.002+11:00

Tonight I'm making these corn fritters, from the Women's Weekly website/recipe collection. The recipe includes a tomato sauce and a rocket salad, but I have other plans that involve smoked salmon and sour cream.

First, the corn - I always use frozen corn kernels. The tinned stuff tastes like candied water and has no nutrition left, and the fresh stuff has usually been in the supermarket for so long it's turned into dry, bland sugar. The frozen stuff is definitely the best.

Next, it needs spring onions, 4 of them for 2 cups of corn kernels. I used nice thick ones, on account of the the batter itself being fairly bland (plus, I like onions).

The batter is a pretty simple egg-milk-SR flour mixture. Just mix in the kernels, onions, salt and pepper!

All that's needed now is some oily goodness in the form of some good quality oil in a non stick pan. Wait for the fritters to either dry out or get bubbles on top, and it's bob's your fritter!

Yum yum yum.

P.S. I should add that the inspiration to cook corn fritters tonight came to me from Haalo...

In search of the perfect semisweet Riesling

2009-10-11T22:38:00.002+11:00

The August/September 2009 edition of Gourmet Traveller's Wine Collector's magazine featured an article on new trends/tastes in Australian wine. It mentioned that Australia loves a wine trend (my own experiences with shiraz viognier, chardonnay and Kiwi sauvignon blanc prove this true) and predicted that the next would be semi-sweet Rieslings.

In an effort to be an early adopter, I've decided to find my favourites so that I know what I want when i go out, over the coming 12-24 months.

So far I've tried Brown Brothers Crouchen and Lexia (bleurghhhhh... note to self: don't take wine advice from 17 year olds at Dan Murphy's), Delatite's Dead Man's Hill Gewürztraminer, Huia Gewürztraminer, Vertigo GR25 and Spring Vale Gewürztraminer. I've also been recommended Ladbroke and Journey's End, but I haven't found them yet in the shops. I'm not even going to bother talking about the disgusting lolly waters the DM assistant talked me into trying...

Delatite Dead Man's Hill Gewürztraminer
I was really surprised by this wine - the Gewurztraminers I remember from when my parents' days were very very sweet and often had a slight fizz. This wine tasted so floral I couldn't believe it, without obvious sweetness (and I love a dry wine). It tasted like roses and lychees and honey and perfume. It wasn't overly expensive, either - I think I paid around $18-20 for the bottle.

Huia Gewürztraminer
Although the tasting notes on the Huia website promises "rose petals ...Turkish delight...warm spices, ripe pear and tropical fruit...vanilla bean, orange and spices", I didn't find it reflected any of these, except perhaps some vanilla and warmth. I am not sure how to describe it - on my palate it tasted almost salty, affecting the sides of my mouth as if saline. I didn't find it dry enough to justify the label of a "dry Gewürztraminer", it was certainly vaguely floral, but it was too slippery, and too sweet and round, without enough flint and minerality for me.

Vertigo GR25
On the advice of aforementioned column in Wine Collectors, I tried the Vertigo GR25 Riesling. I was a bit surprised at first, because it was sweeter than I expected. However, with food it was delicious and even after the first few sips I really became accustomed to the hint of sugar. It was much more acidic than the previous two wines, with a nice citrus sharpness and quite chalky, too. I thought it was less floral than other I've tried, but in a good way. At $22/bottle, I thought it was pretty good value. Btw: the 25GR means 25 grams of residual sugar.

Spring Vale Gewürztraminer
This wine is amazing, and particularly good for someone only just accustoming their taste buds to a sweeter style. Expensive, yes (about $30/bottle) but also delicious. The Spring Vale website describes its Gewürztraminer as having "aromas of rosewater and red delicious apples. A luscious palate with a delicate acid backbone and a very long finish" and I would not disagree. My only issue is that I first tried it too cold - it was much better just below room temp. But still - amazingly delicious, tasting like lychees and roses and still lovely and acidic. My favourite on my quest so far!

Car smash pasta... sort of

2009-10-11T21:08:00.001+11:00

Here is dinner tonight...my version of melbourne gastronome's car smash pasta!

It's garlic, anchovies, capers, chilli flakes, cherry tomatoes, and EVOO. Delish...

Wacky hijinx indeed

2009-09-25T22:34:00.000+10:00

So, turns out the "wacky hijinx" I anticipated was the GFC. So. Hot. So now I'm unemployed, nearly 30, single, childless and without any real assets. Who woulda thunk it?

So how do I find meaning without being a mopey loser? How do I find a "real" job in the kind of climate where it's not even possible to get interviews for jobs I'm over-qualified for?

The answer might be Northern Exposure. It's a current obsession and it's helping me ignore my sadness and focus on the things that matter... like television.

I have found a purpose after all

2008-08-29T21:33:00.001+10:00

Obviously, since I haven't posted since my first ever foray into the blogosphere in January this year, I haven't had a lot to say.

Now however, I have found a worthy purpose: the movement of an entrenched, some might say "career" public servant back into the corporate world.

Who knows what wacky hijinx may ensue?

So stay tuned to see what will happen come Monday, when I give notice. Eek!

And so I enter the blogosphere

2007-07-23T15:12:00.000+10:00

I'm not really sure why, except I feel the need to write and my creativity has been supressed by an unmentionable number of years studying subjects in which creativity is a distinct disadvantage. Unless of course you count "creativity with the truth" as a true form of creativity (did somebody say "Law School"?).

But what do people do on blogs? It seems like some blogs are set up as content aggregators, others provide editorial comment on current issues and some seem to be about nothing really at all. I guess I fall into that category, although I guess I could have established an LJ just as easily as a blog. I suppose what I want to know is if I can still write like I used to, or whether my mental capacity has indeed shrunk as much as I fear.

Disingenuous mountebanks with their subliminal chicanery! A pox on them! ...