297 replies to this topic

[Hayley Casarotto]

So excited you are blogging this week, RRO! Everything so far looks amazing. I'm surprised how much cheaper things seem to be in Sydney compared to Perth - I'd be very chuffed to pay the prices I see in your photos! Looking forwards to the rest of the week!

PS The Maggie Beer fig and burnt honeycomb icecream is the best thing in the world.

[Dakki]

Really looking forward to seeing what you cook up this week. Intensely jealous of all the beautiful seafood.

Just one question: You live in Not Safe for Work?

[ScottyBoy]

My GOD that fish market!!!!

[rarerollingobject]

Really looking forward to seeing what you cook up this week. Intensely jealous of all the beautiful seafood.

Just one question: You live in Not Safe for Work?

No, Shining Wit! (just going with the acronyms, or thinking of spoonerisms... )

But you're right, I should have clarified that my mention of NSW refers to the state I live in, New South Wales. Famous for...err..hm. Rugby league?

[rarerollingobject]

A word about lunches. Personally, I DO eat lunch out most days, and you'll see that clearly this week. This is partly because the food around me is so varied and delicious, but also because my workplace is pretty intense and stressful, with a fair bit of conflict, so some decompressing socialising over lunch is one of the few ways we form/repair bonds. On the occasions I need a break and to not see any of these guys for an hour or so lest I rip their spleens out, I might pretend I've brought my lunch in, but that's usually a ruse they see right through.

Incidentally, they're all very intrigued and mystified as to why I'm taking photos of my food and coffee, and are mooting all kinds of theories, from sudden onset OCD to something for a reality show application..hehe. I'm gonna keep the b*%tards guessing for awhile!

[FrogPrincesse]

Kate,

Amazing food so far! I really like your use of fresh ingredients in your cooking, so this week should be a lot of fun.

I am also in awe with all the beautiful seafood. This uni lardo on toast is something I've been dreaming about since I saw Anthony Bourdain having this dish at Marea in No Reservations. Well done!

Any chance we might get to see the final version of the beet-root cured salmon?very interesting combination, beets, salmon and vodka! You go girl!!!

Yes indeed, in an hour or two from now, it'll be breakfast! I cure salmon a lot actually, I've posted this before, but other variations I've tried for the cure flavourings:
Chineseish - flavourings of sugar, salt, Sichuan pepper, a little five spice, shaohsing wine, scallions and ginger
Vietnameseish - sugar in the form of both sugar and caramel sauce, salt, fish sauce, cassia/cinnamon, star anise, black pepper and chilli. Added a splash of Vietnamese moonshine.
Thaiish - palm sugar, salt, lemongrass, galangal, red chilli, tamarind, crushed coriander roots and leaves, and garlic. Didn't use alcohol here and it was fine, slightly different texture.
Japaneseish - yuzu koushou, Okinawan black sugar, soy sauce and a mirin/sake combo
Frenchish - sugar, fleur de sel, herbes de Provence, lavendar petals, and some Pernod. I used fresh thyme too but it was too overpowering by the end of the cure so would omit that next time.

I love cured salmon but have been sticking with a traditional gravlax recipe (juniper berries, coriander, allspice, pepper, lemon zest, salt, sugar, mint, and gin or vodka). Your use of beet looks great, and the other cures that you mentioned are really inspirational.

One question - you say that you only cure the fish for one day; is that because you are curing a relatively small piece of fish? My go-to recipe, which is for a whole fillet, calls for a curing period of 4 to 5 days.

This is going to be awesome....my brain stopped working at the sight of uni-on-toast. That is just shameless, and this is from a guy waiting for someone to invent biscuits and foie gras gravy, .

Well, actually, the two Dudes at Animal in LA already thought of that! Two nights ago I had their seared foie gras, biscuit, and maple sausage gravy, and I can confirm that it's a pretty amazing combination!

[rarerollingobject]

I love cured salmon but have been sticking with a traditional gravlax recipe (juniper berries, coriander, allspice, pepper, lemon zest, salt, sugar, mint, and gin or vodka). Your use of beet looks great, and the other cures that you mentioned are really inspirational.

One question - you say that you only cure the fish for one day; is that because you are curing a relatively small piece of fish? My go-to recipe, which is for a whole fillet, calls for a curing period of 4 to 5 days.

Thanks for your kind words! I only cure the fish a short while because I'm usually doing a small piece, yes. But also because I don't like the texture salmon can take on when you cure it longer..a little firmer, less fatty and unctuous.

It's probably more like a semi cure, enough to impart flavour and so on.

[rarerollingobject]

Right, a very brief walk around Chinatown, my favourite Chinese supermarket and dinner.

As I got out of work and night was falling, I took a few quick photos of some of my favourite places around Chinatown. None of these photos are particularly thrilling, so will take more comprehensive pics later, but:

Dim sum shop, selling take home frozen yum cha items:



My favourite Vietnamese pho place, comfortingly named 'Pasteur':


Sol Levy, Tobacconist Extraordinaire (I just like the name):


Chinese herbalist:


Chinese BBQ buffet. Notable for not being Korean BBQ. A goodly range of offal here:


Do you need a Roman centurion helmet? You're in luck:


Really great but tiny Japanese place:


And the hugest Chinese supermarket, my heaven:


Oyster sauces:


Woks and strainers and other good things:


Claypots:


Big range of tofu and soy products:


Korean chilli and soybean pastes:


Noodles and dumpling wrappers:


Jerkies and lup cheong sausages:


Spices and so on:


Cooking wines and vinegars:


Every single kind of Chinese sauce you can imagine:


Flavoured oils (inc ginger, abalone, sichuan pepper oils):


Baked goods, lotus seed bun type things:


Freezer full of dumplings and pancakes and wonderful things:


Preserved, salted, century duck and chicken (and quail) eggs:


Yet more dumplings:

[rarerollingobject]

I ended up just buying some gai lan (Chinese broccoli), noodles and flowering chives to make dinner of:

*Prawn, Crab and Crab-fat braised E-Fu noodles
*Gai lan in ginger sauce
*Cucumber quick pickle

Here's the prep. First, the quick pickle; chopped cucumber, salt, sugar, rice vinegar and sesame seeds:



Then the gailan:


Melted some duck fat, softened some shredded ginger, added washed gai lan and stirred to coat in the fat, added a sauce of Shaohsing wine, chicken stock, more ginger and a little sugar and stirred in some cornflour slurry at the end to thicken:




Finished:


Then the prawn and crab noodles:


Say hello to my little friend:


Blue swimmer crabs are incredibly sweet..steamed it slightly for 5 minutes, and then picked the meat:


Picked meat, deveined and shelled prawns, chopped flowering chives, minced shallots and sliced garlic. Also a little dried red chilli:


Softened the chives, garlic, shallots and chilli in a little butter, added the prawns and deglazed with Shaohsing:


And let me introduce you to one of my favourite ingredients on earth: crab fat. It's a Filipino product called taba ng telangka, and it's basically the crab roe/fat/tomalley whatnot..it's sooooo unbelievably tasty, totally rich and decadent and crabby:


Added that to the saute pan and meanwhile, softened some e-fu noodles. E-fu noodles are the noodles you get under braised crab or lobster in Cantonese seafood restaurants:


Drained and added to the pan, crab meat gently stirred through and seasoned with fish sauce and the flowering chive tops:


A delicious meal, if a bit culturally confused..Chinese noodles, Filipino crab paste, Vietnamese fish sauce, Japanese pickle..hehe.

ETA: Boy, am I glad I'm not doing the washing up!

Edited by rarerollingobject, 25 July 2011 - 03:08 AM.

[Trev]

What a ride! This is great, RRO.

[rarerollingobject]

What a ride! This is great, RRO.

Thanks so much for reading!

[Blether]

I ended up just buying some gai lan (Chinese broccoli), noodles and flowering chives...

Beautiful from start to finish.

[weinoo]

Say hello to my little friend:

Nice reference... . Nice dish.

[rarerollingobject]

I ended up just buying some gai lan (Chinese broccoli), noodles and flowering chives...

Beautiful from start to finish.

Thanks, Blether! That means a lot, coming from you, as you create some rather beautiful dishes yourself.

Say hello to my little friend:

Nice reference... . Nice dish.

Heh, thanks. Oh, and weinoo: I saw this and thought of you, so took a picture. See?? He's everywhere!

[weinoo]

Oy. What's he shilling there - pots and pans or some edible food product?

[annachan]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

[rarerollingobject]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

Funny, I was actually going to post that it's unlike the Thai crab paste, which is pulverised and grainy, and unlike the Vietnamese stuff for bun rieu..I literally typed that and deleted it, thinking "OK, shutup about the crab paste"..

Ordering Japanese online..check out http://www.chefsarmoury.com/ It's a Sydney shop with not only Japanese food and kitchenware, but they also have a lot of the sciencey stuff you'd want to really get into Modernist Cuisine.

Edited by rarerollingobject, 25 July 2011 - 04:05 AM.

[rarerollingobject]

Oy. What's he shilling there - pots and pans or some edible food product?

Erm...d'you know, I'm not sure. Shows how effective the advertising was! Maybe recipe cards??

[rarerollingobject]

And last thing for the night:

[ChrisTaylor]

Talisker 10. Neat. Respect.

[SylviaLovegren]

Wow, your kitchen may be small but it looks cozy and well thought out and well loved. I want to hang out there! The seafood looks amazing.

I want that whale butter dish.

[patti]

That salmon is just ridiculous! So beautiful and I bet it tastes incredible.

Smoked pineapple vinegar? Now that I like to try.

I need to find and try that brand of crab paste above. I got one (Thai, I think) that was just really garlicky, without much crab taste. I only know to use it to make bun rieu. I may have to try it on noodles next time.

So jealous of that Asian store. Even though we now have a Chinese store, a Korean store, 2 Indian store and one more Asian store coming soon, all 5 minutes away, I just don't think they can beat the selection in that one store. BTW, know of a good website to order Japanese stuff from? Having a really hard time finding bonito flakes over here.

Funny, I was actually going to post that it's unlike the Thai crab paste, which is pulverised and grainy, and unlike the Vietnamese stuff for bun rieu..I literally typed that and deleted it, thinking "OK, shutup about the crab paste"..

Ordering Japanese online..check out http://www.chefsarmoury.com/ It's a Sydney shop with not only Japanese food and kitchenware, but they also have a lot of the sciencey stuff you'd want to really get into Modernist Cuisine.

I have enormous ingredient envy! I wonder how crab fat/paste would do in an etouffee? That would be a nice cultural mash-up. If only they sold crawfish fat like that!

PS - I am a huge fan of your meals/photos in the dinner thread. Your meals are an education.

[Shelby]

I'm pea green with envy over your sushi....if I had that next door to me, I'd be in heaven!

[rarerollingobject]

Talisker 10. Neat. Respect.

Heh. Thanks. I'm on a bit of a Scotch odyssey. I can't really say I collect them, since I'll buy a bottle of something I haven't tried before, drink it to the end while pondering it deeply all the way through, and then move on to the next Scotch. Lagavulin next. But I must say, I'm really enjoying the Talisker.

[rarerollingobject]

Wow, your kitchen may be small but it looks cozy and well thought out and well loved. I want to hang out there! The seafood looks amazing.

I want that whale butter dish.

That's it - my kitchen may not be grand, but everything in it has been specifically thought about - not that I like the word "curated" for these things but I don't have the space to do anything else.

That whale dish (and the vomiting vase, upthread, and a large ceramic giraffe!) were finds I dragged back in my suitcase from NYC one year, wrapped in layers of clothes and layers of hope against hope that they wouldn't be smithereens by the time they crossed the Pacific.

[rarerollingobject]

I have enormous ingredient envy! I wonder how crab fat/paste would do in an etouffee? That would be a nice cultural mash-up. If only they sold crawfish fat like that!

PS - I am a huge fan of your meals/photos in the dinner thread. Your meals are an education.

Had to google etouffee, and you know, that's not that far from one of the Filipinos' most popular preps for the paste..in a paella-style dish, with shellfish! It would be perfect.

And thanks for your kind words about my meals..I don't really know much about food, formally, but I AM very greedy, so that helps!

[rarerollingobject]

I'm pea green with envy over your sushi....if I had that next door to me, I'd be in heaven!

Yes, we eat there A LOT..I know how much, since the sushi restaurant has an agreement with Qantas to credit frequent flyer points, and I looked at my points balance the other day to realise, in horror, that I've nearly got enough for an interstate flight, just from sushi points alone!!

[heidih]

As always, the dishes are right up my alley.

So are you one of those people who then saves the crab and prawn shells until you have enough to make stock?

The crab paste is on my search list. We have a Filipino community nearby so I am hopeful.

Can you clarify on the E-Fu noodles - they look similar to ones I see at the Chinese market. Are they precooked in some fashion and only need soaking in warmish water before being tossed into the dish? They look like they would have a nice chew to them.

[rarerollingobject]

I don't know about anyone else, but I generally wake up hungry enough to eat the bum out of a low-flying duck. Which is colourful Aussie expression for being a bit on the fang. Which is to say, hungry. There are also lots of charming expressions for being thirsty, but none of them G-rated enough for a foodblog!

Breakfast this morning was a bit of a mixed bag..first, the neon green kiwi/pear/mint/spinach smoothies I've trained my boyfriend to make (he eats SO much fruit of his own volition, so I'm always looking for ways to up his vegetable intake). I also put in some soy/linseed/almond and some coconut oil, for 'mouthfeel' (how I hate that word).



I think the colour is actually quite pretty.



Then, oatmeal for me. I like Scotch-cut oats better, but no time, no time, so rolled it is. I also LOVE ginger, so this was a three ginger oatmeal: crystallised ginger, stem ginger and powdered ginger. And some rose petals I'm using up.



The result. I couldn't help gussying it up with pink peppercorns for extra zing:


And a girly cup of my favourite Mariage Freres tea:


Suitably victualled, I'm off to work. Give me strength!

[rarerollingobject]

As always, the dishes are right up my alley.

So are you one of those people who then saves the crab and prawn shells until you have enough to make stock?

The crab paste is on my search list. We have a Filipino community nearby so I am hopeful.

Can you clarify on the E-Fu noodles - they look similar to ones I see at the Chinese market. Are they precooked in some fashion and only need soaking in warmish water before being tossed into the dish? They look like they would have a nice chew to them.

Stock, yes indeed. It's funny, I was thinking just yesterday that I always make my prawn stock with Asian flavourings (ginger, white pepper, green onions, sugar, fish sauce) but my chicken stock with the classic celery/carrot/onion combo. It's one of the reasons I didn't take a picture of my freezer earlier in the week: it's a veritable graveyard of shells, bones, fats, carcasses and other delights I'm saving for the zombie apocalypse.

The crab paste is also referred to as aligue. Look for the stuff with as few additional ingredients as possible.

And the e-fu noodles are indeed pre-cooked..deep-fried, I believe. You only need a brief dunk in hot water to soften, and then they're best further softened in the braising liquid so they take on the flavours. They are nice and chewy, yes..good pickup, that's exactly what I was after, as I wasn't in the mood for the softness of fresh pasta, or the toothsomeness of dried linguine etc..