eG Foodblog: haresfur (2011) - not exactly bush tucker

[Blether]

Hmm, favourite pottery...

Yes, favourite anything, just about, eh ?

Then there are all the Japanese pottery areas/styles. I'm drawn to Tamba, Shigaraki, and Oribe ware. I'd love to go explore them sometime.

I really hope you get the chance some time, I'm sure you'd have a ball. Thanks for answering. I should go off and look for (Japanese / craftsman)ceramics threads on eG, there should be some.

[annachan]

I've had the same problem with those supermarket roasts. Thing is, there's no standard size for those roasts. Sometimes you get too little ones. Sometimes a big one. Sometimes a biggish one and a little one. The instructions are written for none of these and you need to work off temp. What's the right temp for medium-rare roo? God knows. I'd be shooting in the direction of venison, I guess, given the flavour profile isn't too different.

Also, I've found the 'Macro Meats' stuff from the supermarkets isn't particularly good. It's inexpensive, yeah, but you get what you pay for. You can order better quality 'roo steaks and roasts (maybe stick with the steaks--the roasts are probably easier to over- or under-cook when we're not entirely sure what temp. we're aiming for) through butchers and poultry stores. If you're ever down in Melbourne, visit The Point @ Albert Park. The rest of the menu dances between so-so and nice, but the 'roo fillet is excellent.

So, yeah, for foreigners ... raw or undercooked (as opposed to medium-rare--you can't eat this stuff above medium and you really don't want to eat it blue) it has a very bloody, irony flavour. Not nice. I'd have to put away a few beers before I could be convinced to try someone's 'roo tartare. Overcooked it tastes of little. Medium-rare, tho', and it's a bit--a bit--like venison. It's lean. Put the mince into something that's slow-cook-a ragu, say--and you end up with something that regular punters probably couldn't tell apart from beef, but the steaks are quite different ... while still having that basic 'red meat from a decent-sized mammal' quality.

Thanks for the tips. I think you are right, Skippy is a meat that will really show the cooks skill or lack thereof.

I actually find cooking the steaks to be quite easy. I cook them the same way as I do beef. Salt, pepper, into hot pan, 2-3 minutes on each side and let them rest. If I fancy a little sauce with it, I just drizzle on some blood plum vinegar.

[catdaddy]

The rib racks must be close to lamb size.

RooRibChops with garlic and rosemary?

MedRare on the charcoal?

[haresfur]

So I'm guessing that's not an "I Heart Cholesterol" Cookbook...but I bet the recipes would be GREAT if it was!

I have the Caprial's Desserts cookbook, and I used to go to the restaurant all the time before it closed. And I was wondering what to do with that bag of newts that have been sitting in the back of the fridge!

I had a really nice meal at the restaurant once. BTW her father is a potter . I need to look through the book and see if there is anything inspiring.

Apparently I "heart" cholesterol, or at least it "hearts" me and likes to stick around. You have to go to huge extremes for diet to make a big difference. Still I try to avoid the worst offenders except bacon, and cheese, and...

[haresfur]

Had to make a trip to Geelong today, over 5 hours driving for a 2 hour meeting. So the day started with an egg McMuffin, hash browns and a large mocha. I didn't bother taking a photo. I drove around looking for a lunch spot in Geelong but found myself in the outskirts and ended up eating some unexciting udon soup in a shopping mall.

The good news is I made it back to the office in time for beer club. The James Squire Porter was rated highly by most members.

When I made it home, I was pretty tired so an easy meal of butter chicken was in order. My routine is to chop an onion and fry it up in olive oil along with a cup of brown rice (medium grain is sold in the supermarkets) until the rice is toasty and the onion translucent. I threw in some Hungarian yellow peppers from the garden because I needed to use them up. Then add 2 cups water. I also added about an ice cube size chunk of frozen turkey stock. After about 1/2 hour of simmer place chicken on top and dump a jar of butter chicken sauce over. Cook another 15 minutes or so until the chicken is done. Bone-in chicken takes longer.

While the chicken was cooking, I made a small French 75 but replaced the champagne with Duck and Bull cider. Yummy.

1 oz Tanqueray gin

1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice, strain into a champagne flute, top with sparkling cider. Garnish with lemon twist.

My champagne flutes came from my grandfather and they are a bit small for even this reduced volume so I added more cider after the first few sips.

[haresfur]

Time for the ugly: Here are some refrigerator photos:

[Shelby]

LOVE the cat staring longingly at the contents--I'm assuming the open tuna! Or....wait.....your cat looks remarkably like mine A.K.A. Dr. Hannibal Lector. I'm away from my house at the moment, did the good doctor jump ship and run away to your house?

[nickrey]

Ah yes, the cat staring at the great God in the corner. Seems they have their own little cargo cult.

[haresfur]

LOVE the cat staring longingly at the contents--I'm assuming the open tuna! Or....wait.....your cat looks remarkably like mine A.K.A. Dr. Hannibal Lector. I'm away from my house at the moment, did the good doctor jump ship and run away to your house?

LOL. Correct he is after tuna - only spring water, not oil. The purple packages are pet mince (no not minced pets!). I try to buy the stuff that doesn't make a point of advertising that it contains kidney because Dalmatians can get crystal problems in their urine, similar to gout (different from the common cat crystals) so purines are better avoided. The brown bottle with the yellow pull-ring cap is Bundaberg ginger beer. Aussies do like their ginger beer and I can't complain about that.

[haresfur]

Ok, no safety net: Time for the lamb.

I got up early fed and walked dogs (saw a wallaby). Then cobbled together advice from here and Alice Waters and a few guesses along the way.

First I salt&peppered the lamb and browned it in olive oil.

I took the lamb out and browned the root vegetables a little.

Took that out and put in a separate casserole. Then I cooked up a mixture of chopped leek, onion, and shallot in the pot. Took that out, added some white wine and deglazed the sides a little. The leek mixture went back in, along with a couple of chopped tomatoes and rosemary.

Put the lamb on top, covered and put both dishes in an oven heated to 150 C and immediately dropped the temperature as low as it could go. I put the meat thermometer on the shelf and the temperature ranged from about 75 to 84. I haven't really figured my oven out yet. It has a convection element at the back instead of the N American Norm bottom element. The grill is separate, below the oven.

Then with fingers crossed I left for lunch with friends.

[haresfur]

My friends just built a house in Trentham, a small town on the Great Dividing Range - "great" as in "long", not "high" In central Victoria, you'd be hard pressed to figure out there is a continental divide there without looking at a map of the streams. Trentham is a bit over an hour south of Bendigo. We were joined by other friends who live in Bendigo & Kyneton.

Lunch was at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Well, not actually at the hotel, which had a fire several years ago. The new owners have been working to restore it and in the mean-time serve meals in the old stables in the back. The kitchen is in a caravan.

I had roast duck with duck & juniper pie and lentils. The duck was pretty good, the "pie" wonderful and the lentils were very good, too.

Here are a few of other meals:

It was a beautiful autumn day and the locals were out at the bar, watching the world go by:

[haresfur]

The lamb cooked for about 10 hours, the last one uncovered, which seems to have been a mistake. It got more dry than brown. The root vegetables were nice and soft when I got home from lunch - they just tasted uncooked. So I put them on the stove with wine and simmered for quite a while. To make a long story short, they were still pretty bad.

The lamb was cooked but not exactly melting away. Maybe another half day would have helped. It tasted pretty good to me. We ate one shank's worth and have leftovers for something.

I also served it with mashed sweet potato, ginger and a bit of sour cream. A bit too much sour cream but it turned out pretty well. Opened my last bottle of Davenlore merlot from Prosser Washington. Made me realize how much I miss Washington merlot. Good thing I have a few bottles of their Cabernet, though. Eileen used to work with one of the owners and we really like their wine. Much better than knowing someone who's wine you aren't fond of.

[haresfur]

Oh, I forgot to mention that after lunch we went around to my friends' place for tea and cake. Josie made a very nice pear and raspberry cake.

[haresfur]

Something else I wanted to mention is the fickle nature of water in much of Australia. Even though we had record rain after the drought, we are still on water restrictions. That may ease further with some upgrades to the water treatment system in Bendigo but the fundamental problem is too little and erratic rainfall and a general lack of storage capacity. Much of the groundwater is too saline to use.

On the other hand Bendigo water is very soft and tastes really good after some pretty advanced purification. I usually try to capture the water for plants as I'm waiting for the hot water to reach the sink. I keep a pitcher handy and pour it into a plastic water jug if I'm not using it for the plants right away. Of course it would have helped if they had put the water heater closer to the kitchen & bath, rather than at the back of the house (outside).

And another more or less food related item are the eucalyptus leaves I gathered for the last family members, a couple of stick leaf insects I bought from a friend's kid who has quite a little business going.

[haresfur]

Well, it's almost 9:00 PM on Saturday here and my blog is drawing to a close. Thanks for reading and it's been a really fun "conversation". I've learned a lot. I'll leave off with a few tea pot photos:

[eldereno]

Thank you so much for blogging, haresfur. A really fun and enlightening trip across the world!!

[Kim Shook]

This has been a wonderful trip! Thank you so much for being so generous with your time and sharing your days with us. I'm sorry that your lamb and vegetables didn't turn out like you wished. Lamb shanks can be tricky little boogers. My mom used to dust them with flour, S & P and pop them in the oven to roast and they were delicious. Must have been different lamb back then (1970's) because I ended up with lamb jerky the last time I tried that!

I loved the kitty peeking into the fridge, too. We once had to keep a bungee cord on our fridge because we had a cat who learned to open the door and help himself to what looked good. Once while I was on a trip, poor Mr. Kim forgot the cord and came home to an open fridge door with a clay pot on the floor and chicken bones strewn about the house. I hope none of your friends learn that trick!

[Jenni]

Oh, you have a bundaberg in your fridge! Don't like their ginger beer much (doesn't taste gingery enough) but their root beer is amazing!

[barolo]

Thanks for showing us your part of the world, haresfur.

[Dejah]

Enjoyed everything in your week of sharing!

I love the "parting shots" of the tea pots - another of my weaknesses. Did you make some of them?

[haresfur]

Oh, you have a bundaberg in your fridge! Don't like their ginger beer much (doesn't taste gingery enough) but their root beer is amazing!

I thought the ginger beer was pretty good. What brand do you like? My favourite Aussie ginger beer is Cascade from Tasmania. I buy whichever is on sale.

On the other hand Bundaberg rum is godawful. Actually, I have only tried the yellow label stuff. I would only try the others if I could get a tiny nip-bottle.

[Rebecca263]

Thank you so much for sharing your week with us, and your refrigerator, of course! That final refrigerator shot, with the cat peering in, is beyond adorable!

Your pottery collection is varied and wonderful, too. I hope that you'll share your collection with us again- perhaps we need a pottery thread, if there isn't one as yet?

Again, thank you!

[haresfur]

Enjoyed everything in your week of sharing!

I love the "parting shots" of the tea pots - another of my weaknesses. Did you make some of them?

I made the bottom three, quite a while ago. I do need to get back to pottery, if only because we keep breaking plates. The round tea pot is my most used pot. The other two work but aren't super practical.

[haresfur]

Thank you so much for sharing your week with us, and your refrigerator, of course! That final refrigerator shot, with the cat peering in, is beyond adorable!

Your pottery collection is varied and wonderful, too. I hope that you'll share your collection with us again- perhaps we need a pottery thread, if there isn't one as yet?

Again, thank you!

I thought there was a tea pot photo thread in the coffee and tea forum, but I couldn't find it. There are threads on Yixing pots (like the top one). I really don't know a lot about brewing tea or matching teas to pots.

[Peter the eater]

Great food, great part of our world. Thanks for blogging and also for not cooking that stick insect. Can you say something about that last teapot -- with the unorthodox spout?